The Symphonian Adventure
by I.K.A. Valian
Summary: The beginning of a journey always starts with an explosion of fate, and a trip to the far past for Alex is that explosion. There he must fight for the right to wield the Eternal Sword. Why? To save the world, of course. Spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

This is a new story I'm creating. It is in no way connected to my other story, Tales of Symphonia: Dark Tidings. This story will not be my main focus on this site until DT is complete, which will take a while to do. This however will be my secondary story for when I'm bored out of my mind with DT, or have hit a road block in DT, and so on and so forth. With that, on with said secondary story.

! Edit on March 18, 2007 : Since alot of people seem to be confused in the matter of Self-insert or not self-insert, let me clear it up here. No, this is **_NOT_** a self-insert. If there is any more questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!"

* * *

"Ooooohhh!" I moaned. The instructors walked away, the class following, to the next ancient wild life exhibit. Why did they have to take the whole class to the museum? It had to be the_ most_ insanely stupefying place on the face of the earth. Honestly, couldn't those meatheads in charge have taken us to someplace fun. Like Virtual Land or someplace like that. 

"Couldn't they have taken us to someplace better than this garbage receptacle," complained Colin. I nodded in agreement with my best friend. Over my shoulder, I saw that Colin's hair was all disheveled, his eyes were all glassy, and if I didn't know better, he looked like he was almost doing a better job than I was at dragging my feet.

"What did you say!" squealed a high pitched voice from behind Colin. I looked over my shoulder in time to see Colin flying toward me. I jumped to the side just as Colin landed. I stood on his tip toes for a few seconds before I rolled onto the flats of my feet, carefully controlling the muscles in my legs so that I wouldn't lose my balance.

"What did you do that for?" shouted Colin as he scrambled to stand back up. A storm of messy brown hair and a pair of glasses grabbed Colin's corny old tie-dyed t-shirt and pulled him in close so that their noses were scant centimeters apart. Colin swallowed loudly enough for me to hear several feet away.

"These artifacts are the only things we have left from an era of our history that was nearly wiped out by the Third War of Ages, a war that lasted nearly a millennia. They are certainly not garbage or worthless junk or anything of that nature. Do you hear me Colin Aurent?" Colin reached up and wiped the spit off of his face with his left hand. At the same time, with his right hand, he gently unhooked the fist from his precious t-shirt and backed away.

"Yes Marty, I understand. But did you have to pull on my shirt so hard?" Colin looked down at his shirt and straightened out the wrinkles as tenderly as he could. Marty crossed her arms, blew out a quick burst of air, and stalked after the rest of the class standing in front of the next exhibit.

"You realized that we won't be able to get her to speak to you for the next thirty minutes or so, right?"

Colin finished smoothing out that ridiculous shirt and looked at me. "Alex, I realized that when I called this stuff garbage. Now she won't ask me to share my lunch. It's all up to you buddy!" Colin gave me the stupidest grin and a double thumbs up. I sighed and shook my head. Colin was the craftiest of our little group, that was for sure.

"Boys!" We both looked in the direction of the arched entrance to the gallery we were in and saw our instructor standing there. "Come along, or would you rather skip lunch." Sprinting, I managed to get through the door before Colin did and fell into step with the rest of the group heading down the brightly lit hallways.

As soon as Colin caught up few seconds later, I hit him lightly on the shoulder and said, "Hah, beat ya!"

Colin hit me back and said, "Well at least I don't got to share my lunch. Hah!"

I hit Colin back and said, "Well at least I didn't get beat up by a girl. Hah!"

Colin hit me in the arm again and said, "Well… well… you still gots to share your lunch. Hah!"

I hit Colin once more and said, "Doesn't mean you didn't get beat by a girl. Hah!" I hit Colin for the last time and said, "I win, two hits for the same thing." Colin tried to hit me again, but I dodged it, grabbed his arm, twisted around to his other side and hit his other arm two times.

"Hey, no fair," he complained, "you know I can't do all those fancy moves." Colin started to pout and drag his feet again.

I slapped him rather hard on the back, just like Dad does to me every time I made that face. He stumbled forward a bit then he turned and scowled at me. I just grinned and said, "Cheer up. At least you don't have to share your lunch." His face lightened a bit, but he still had that sour look, so I jabbed a finger into his side and watched the expected comical scene unfold.

"Ahh!" he screamed out loud as he leaped nearly three feet into the air. The entire class stopped and looked back at us two. I grinned and Colin scowled at me again and rubbed his side.

The instructor pointed at us and the entire class stared accusingly. "If you two don't behave, you _will_ be separated."

"Yes Professor Clarisse." Colin and I intoned at the same time. She swiftly turned around and continued to lead the class toward the cafeteria down the hall.

"Old deadbeat doesn't know how much of a stiff she is." Colin said under his breath and, coincidentally, out of the side of this mouth that faced me. I knew this was his way of trying to make me laugh, consequently getting me into more trouble. "I bet if we wrapped her in toilet paper, she'd look like those mummies back there. Heck, it'd be a family reunion." I couldn't help myself and I let a low chuckle out. The instructor turned her head toward me just enough so that I could see her gaze of steel. My laughter was hard to hold back so I covered my mouth. "You know," Colin continued, smiling contentedly, "If this is where they're gonna hire instructors from, no wonder she's always shrieking when we do anything exciting or alive."

I suppressed my urge to burst into a barking fit of laughter and instead smiled, though it probably looked more like it felt, a twisted wrenching of my trembling lips. I held it in until we were allowed to separate for lunch inside of the cafeteria.

By the time I had found my seat, the immediate urge had left and I was left in peace to eat my food. That is until Colin found me and sat down. He pulled out a PBJ sandwich and ate normally, for Colin that is. He literally seemed to breathe the food down his throat. It seriously appeared to get sucked into his mouth, leaving no trace of peanut butter or jelly on or around his mouth. That is how effective his mouth is at eating.

I once held a banana in front of his face. He sucked that thing down faster than it came loose from the sickly purple peel. I could almost feel my hand being drawn in, so I dropped the peel and it flew into his mouth. He ate that too. Then he turned green. I'll never forget what happened next. Instead of throwing up that rotten peel, he burped so loudly I swear a window shattered. After that he was fine.

I ate my own roast beef sandwich as fast as I could, hoping that I would be able to eat it all before I was asked to share. I finished the sandwich, drank all my juice, downed an apple, and ate my muffin.

I wiped my mouth on the back of my sleeve and yelled, "Done!"

"Took you long enough." Colin was lazily picking his teeth and then cleaning his nails.

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not a human vacuum cleaner. It's just not in my DNA."

Colin shrugged. Then he yawned and said, "Sucks to be you then."

"Yeah, whatever you stuffed vacuum bag." I stood up and stretched. "Hey, where's Marty?"

Colin stood up and looked around the cafeteria with me. We couldn't find her anywhere. We did see a tall, trench coat wearing man leave, but I only noticed that cause he kinda looked like a gangster, like in all those old movies you see on the black and white channels. I stared at the trench coat. It seemed strange for some reason.

"Do you think she might still be back with the garbage," he asked. I snorted and looked down the hallway. Colin turned back to his food, picked up his milk carton, sucked it dry, and threw it back onto the table while wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

"Probably," I snorted again. If it isn't old stuff, its history books. Marty really is the typical book worm, nerdy girl. But she could be cool sometimes, such as when she plays VG's with us, that's cool. And she beats me often enough to make herself look good without making me look the total newbie, which is nice of her, but still... She must be able to decipher the codes of the game at a moments notice or something, cause she knows how to do almost everything in any game. It's insane, but awesome to watch.

As soon as I got up to throw out my trash, the instructor shouted over the lunch room, "You have five minutes left to eat before we head out to the bus and head home, is that clear?"

A chorus of "Yes Professor Clarisse," all followed at the same time. Teachers are scary sometimes. Especially ours, she has to be some kind of demon in human form. I sit in class everyday and wonder when her head will start to spin and fire will shoot out of her mouth.

"Do you think we should go get Marty, you know how she can get." I nod toward Colin and start making my way toward the exit. It isn't easy navigating a sea of people, they all suddenly started to file in and now the cafeteria was packed. When Colin and I finally made it to the exit, we found the rest of the class, leaving.

"Wait, Professor Clarisse!" I shouted as I scrambled to catch up. She turned to Colin and me and waited for an answer. Her eye brow… it was ticking in the most disturbing manner. I think I was staring at it for a full minute before I was being pulled away by Colin in the direction of the exhibits. "Hey, I was mesmerized by the brow, what did you say?"

"Heh, I said that we forgot something in the exhibit area and that it won't take long. You really gotta learn not to look at her face. It turns all who look upon it to mumbling, drooling zombies. She uses those zombies to lick toilets clean, you know." I laughed as we ran into the exhibit we were in last. That was going to be the last time I saw that teacher, though, I didn't realize that until we skidded to a halt inside the exhibit hall.

"Wha… wha… wha…" I couldn't help stammering. I mean, there in front of us was a living, breathing monster. It had horns, at least they looked like horns, but they could have been part of the wild hair covering his entire head and back. His eyes glowed bright yellow, his foul breath smelled of sulfur and throw-up, and he was so tall that he dwarfed the seven foot tall statue of some guy wielding two swords.

After I got over the initial shock, I noticed that Marty was in the beast's clawed hand. She had blood dripping down from above her left eye and her glasses were missing. I looked to my left and saw Colin shaking so fiercely that he could barely stand. Strangely enough, I wasn't shaking at all.

"No… not again…" I heard Colin whisper. Huh? Again? What's he mean? I looked back at the demon, who had just noticed us. As his big paw was about to descend and grab a hold of us, I shoved Colin away from me and jumped the other way, barely escaping the nab.

"Colin," I shouted, "You ok?" I ran for cover as the beast again tried to grab me. Colin managed to get behind that statue of the swordsman.

"Yeah," came the shaky reply.

"That thing has Marty," I shouted as I jumped forward and rolled between the monsters legs, "We have to save her." The beast gave a loud roar of frustration. I had to stop moving and cover my ears. I couldn't hear very well after that, but it sounded like there were screams echoing from other parts of the building.

"Damn you, you over grown flee bag, give Marty back." The beast turned and tried to swipe up Colin, but he leaped behind the statue again. I stood up on shaky legs, that roar really threw me off. Since the demon was busy trying to find Colin, I took the chance to look around for anything that might help. Not a thing, nothing. Just junk.

"There isn't anything in here that can help, it's all junk." Suddenly three security guards appeared in the doorway. One screamed like a little girl, one passed out, and the other abandoned his fellow officers and high-tailed it. "This can't be happening," I moaned loudly.

The beast roared again and put his fist through the statue's head, causing the head to explode into a cloud of dust. The legs of the statue cracked and then with a loud snapping sound, it the body fell backwards.

"Colin!" There was not movement, or any response. "Colin! Answer me, Colin!" Unfortunately my shouting reminded the beast that I was still there and so he turned back to face me.

Now I was shaking. But not in fear, still I found that strange. No I was shaking… in anger? This feeling was stronger than normal anger… it was overwhelming.

I looked around again and saw a really old and rusted piece of metal hanging on the wall. It actually wasn't hanging on the wall anymore, because the monster had knocked it down.

I picked up the piece of metal and charged at the demonic being, rusty relic held high, screaming my rage out, and feeling tears slide down my face.

Everything seemed to slow down at that moment. It was strange, but I didn't notice the rusty piece of metal in my hand start to glow white.

All I could think about was the thing that had killed my best friend. The thing was holding my other best friend, probably dying right now. I couldn't care less about what happened to me at that moment.

So I didn't notice the rusty relic transform into a brightly shining, glowing purple sword. I didn't notice Colin getting up from the rubble and running toward the monster with one of the stone swords from the statue. I didn't notice Marty wake up and kick the thing in the face.

The only thing I noticed was the explosion of light and fire filling the room as I sliced the monster in half, forehead to groin. That was the only and last thing I noticed before I blacked out.

* * *

Waking up for me usually takes the form of a shot gun. I'm up and going almost immediately. Not this time. The first thing I noticed was how the grass under me was cool, long, lush, comforting, all those things you look for in a nice mattress. The next thing I noticed was how I couldn't move. That scared me a little. I tried and I tried, but nothing would move. I couldn't even open my eyes to see and where ever I was, complete silence filled the air. Panic was setting in. Normally, I'm not one to panic, but normally, I can move when I want to. 

The logic centers in my mind decided to take that time to realize that grass doesn't grow inside buildings and what lying on grass had to mean. That really scared me. I tried moving again and miracle of miracles, I felt my right foot wiggle back and forth. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. For the next few minutes I worked on moving my entire body until I could sit up and look around. It wasn't what I expected.

I _was_ in a room. I could tell it wasn't outside, as I first thought. Who in their right mind would plant grass inside a building? Somehow the ceiling was lit up, as if simulating a real sky. The room was made to simulate a rolling hillside in the country, before it was destroyed in the wars, I assumed. No doubt this was part of some exhibit.

I looked around and there on the grass next to me was a long sword. It was sheathed in a large leather wrap. I reached out and grabbed the hilt, felt a shot of adrenalin shoot through me, and pulled the long blade free. I marveled at the smooth surface and they way it seemed to almost glow with many swirling shades of a purple color. I never held a real sword before. This is so cool. Putting the sword back in the wrap, I stood up and re-did my belt so that the leather wrap with the sword inside was hanging on my left hip.

"Now to find out where in the museum I am and what happened to Colin and Marty." I always talk to myself… there's nothing wrong with that. I walked to the wall and ran my hand along the smooth surface. Whoever did the painting was a master at his craft. The detail was perfect. Even though I was practically touching my eyeballs to the wall, the picture was still sharp. I looked down the wall to my right and saw a door handle. How convenient.

I opened the door and walked out, expecting to find myself in the hallway. Instead I opened my eyes to find myself standing in the field that was painted onto the wall in the room behind me. My confidence vanished. I turned around and found the room vanished. I spin around and see grass, trees, and more grass everywhere I look. This is definitely not the museum. Where the heck am I?

In the distance, I could make out a covered wagon traveling along a dirt road in the middle of a wide open green field. I was about to head toward that road when I heard a low rumbling behind me. My body immediately stiffened. Slowly turning, I came face to face with the most disturbing sight yet, a five foot tall grasshopper and a lady bug that was bigger than my head.

If there is one thing that I can't stand, it has to be bugs, any bugs, even if their harmless ants, I have to destroy them as best as I can. Now I come face to face with these monstrously huge insects. Now… how do I squish a bug that's bigger than I am?

I didn't get much time to think because the two creatures screamed in their primal rage and charged. Seeing as I don't have any way of squashing said bugs, I turned and ran for the cliffs that were in the distance.

* * *

So what do you think? 

This is my first attempt at a first person POV, so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Please review, Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

Bugs, a grasshopper and a lady bug, either one capable of killing me with their sheer size alone. They were chasing me across this humongous field that just couldn't be real, and yet here it was. I remember hearing in history class that the Third War of Ages destroyed the last vestiges of a green world. Afterward, I just went back to daydreaming, because that class was too boring. "If only I paid closer attention." I laughed at my own joke. "That just wouldn't be like me, now would it?" The bugs certainly agreed as they closed in on me while I was talking to myself. 

'I wonder if a giant can of Raid would work…' Shaking my head of the distracting thoughts, I jumped to the side just in time and watched a razor sharp mandible of the gigantic grasshopper bury itself into the dirt. I scrambled back up and leaped as fast as possible into a small wooded area, hoping beyond hope that the monsters attacking me would cease and desist.

Breathing heavily, I watched the grasshopper try to enter the forest but found itself unable to pass the initial tree-line. Meanwhile the ladybug loudly buzzed around, bobbing and weaving about as the grasshopper raged against the trees. I was tired and out of breath, but I finally made it to safety. Smiling and pointing at the monsters, I shouted, "Ha ha, better luck next… time…"

To my utter horror, the grasshopper, well, hopped. The dirt and grass exploded when it pushed itself upward, it sailed through the air, screeching the entire way, and landed inside of the forest, snapping tree limbs along its journey to the forest floor. My smile faded as slowly as my arm all the while I mumbled incoherent strings of sounds and tried to comprehend what had just happened.

When the bug landed, it found itself stuck in between three trees. And to add insult to injury, the thing had broken one of its front legs. It screamed in tortured pain and anguish as it thrashed about and glared at me, its prey.

The enormous lady bug immediately flew after its ailing partner. Around the trunks it sailed, and when it found a clear shot at my head, rage filled its buggy eyes and it dive bombed. I threw my hands up in front of my head and not a second too soon. The ladybug slammed into me and sent me flying out of the other side of the forest, leaves and greenery exploded behind me.

I did not hit the ground once, but three times, bouncing across a patch of grass until my body had lost enough momentum to remain on the ground. Then I slid across the grass and slowly came drifted to a stop on a dirt path. Rocks ripped long tears in my shirt, dust and dirt from the road beneath me billowed into the air.

Pain shot through my being when I tried to move my right arm. Looking down, I found that it was covered in cuts and blood. And there was some of the bone sticking out at the elbow region. I painfully craned my neck to look back the way I came in time to see the grasshopper and ladybug emerge from the foliage. I squeezed my eyes shut in terror and pain, wishing this entire nightmare would end.

"HELP!" I shouted as loudly as I could. It didn't sound that loud to me, my voice crackled from running earlier and the dirt I had just breathed in.

'I am going to die.' I told myself. I glanced back again at the monsters, they were closer now. The grasshopper was still limping. Its front leg was dangling in front of it, swaying with its jerking movements. Green goo fell from the broken joint splat on the ankle high grass every few seconds. The ladybug was circling over its partner's head, and clearly it was agitated. I squeezed my eyes shut again, cringing slightly at the pain. 'I wish Kraig was here!' I thought as bitter tears started falling down my dirty cheeks.

I cracked my eyes to see how much farther the monsters had to go, but all I could see through my water logged eyes were the shadows the creatures hanging over me. I closed my eyes again and waited for the end to come. More tears fell down my cheeks until a soft, cool human hand wiped them away.

A soothing voice accompanied the hand saying, "It's going to be ok. You're safe now."

'Wait, that wasn't the grasshopper.' Opening my eyes again, I still saw the shadows, but this time, I noticed that they weren't moving. Beyond the dark patches on the ground, I saw the blurry image of the grasshopper and ladybug fighting with a cloaked man.

His sword caught my attention as he swung it down on the head of the giant grass eating monster, cleaving it in half. The man would have gotten covered in the resulting explosion of green goo had he not jumped into the air and with a mighty cry, spun in the air and brought his sword down on the ladybug. The pieces of the ladybug landed on the ground with soft splats.

I tried to look up, but my neck suddenly exploded in pain. Somehow, I moved my blurry vision higher until another cloaked person came into view. The woman underneath the dirty brown cloak was beautiful. She was so beautiful, I completely forgot about my arm, at least, until I tried to move again.

"Don't move," she said soothingly. Soft, velvety brown hair framed her concerned face. Her small mouth was creased in concentration. She looked me over and finally said, "You're very badly injured. I'd give you an apple gel to help with the pain. Unfortunately, my husband used the last of our supplies fighting… monsters not too long ago." Her soft face turned and glanced at the cloaked man who was wiping his sword on the grass. Turning back to me, she started to study my arm, poking and reverently touching it in places. "Those monsters nearly killed you. How did you come to be in this situation?" I grit my teeth as more pain shot from my arm through my nervous system.

"How is he?" the man asked. He stood next to the woman and crossed his arms. His voice was deep, kind of like Kraig's in a way. I managed to turn my head enough to see his face, it was full of concern, like the woman's, though his auburn hair covered half of his face, the concern was clearly there.

"He won't survive unless we treat his wounds, but for now, he'll be alright." The woman turned and looked up at the man. "His arm has been broken in several places, his skull is fractured, his neck looks sprained if it is not also fractured, his other arm is cut up pretty bad, and his back is even worse. The bleeding has stopped as well, for the moment."

The man sighed in relief. "Good," he said. He looked off to his right and said, "At least we're finally here, at Asgard." I wanted to look too, but my neck hurt too much. Instead, I watched the woman smile, glance over in the same direction as the man was, and then look down at the small child wrapped in a deep mahogany brown cloth that she held against her chest with her left arm.

"Yes," replied the woman, also relieved. "Finally. A tourist town such as this is bound to have a good physician available. And perhaps _they_ will not find us in such a place."

Again I tried to look at what the man was looking at, but my neck hurt so much. "Ahh!" I couldn't help crying out as intense as the pain was, I'd imagine an elephant would pass out. The two travelers looked back down at me, worry taking their features again.

"Kratos," the woman asked without looking at the man, "how are we going to move him? I'm afraid his injuries will only worsen if we do."

"Well," Kratos replied, "first we'll ha… se…" Their voices faded out with my vision.

I was now surrounded by complete darkness. It was cold, whatever I was lying on. I wanted to stand up, to get warm, but the more I tried, the colder I got. I could hear dripping in the distance, was it water? My mouth suddenly became dry as my body realized how parched it really was. And then my stomach growled as it realized that I was starving.

I was freezing, thirsty, and hungry. The pain I felt from my stomach as it hollowed out increased with every drop of water that echoed into my ears. Soon the pain was so intense that my stomach felt like it was eating itself to satisfy my hunger, to quench my thirst. 'I am going to die,' I dismally thought to myself. 'I'm going to die, without ever finding my friends, or getting to meet my parents for the first time. I'm going to die…'

Facing my death, something snapped in my psyche, it had to, because I suddenly was filled with determination. I don't know where it pulsed from, or why it decided that I should receive its power. 'I can't die.' I thought, 'I don't have time to die. I'm going to fight, to live.'

'I don't want to die. I don't want to die.' That is what I kept repeating in my mind. How many times did I have to tell myself that to force my self to keep from passing out, from giving in to the enormous pain. I lost count. I felt lightheaded. I felt like I was falling, even though my body, frozen stiff on a plate of ice, was unable to move in the pitch black darkness. 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I will not die here. I Will Not Die Here! I am going to live! I've… got… to… Live!'

And just like that, like snapping ones fingers, the pain was gone. I was full too, as if food had magically been transported into my stomach. It felt like it was going to explode, but at the same time, it was the blissful pain of a full belly. And my thirst was gone, my body felt bloated with water. The icy floor beneath me had disappeared, replaced by a snug, warm, cushioned mattress. I was in pain, yes, all over I was in pain, but I knew that the pain couldn't kill me. It couldn't kill me, because I was stronger.

Leaning back into the warm cushion, my body protested and caused me to wince slightly. Finally finding my comfort zone I thought, 'This is nice. I wish I had a bed this nice at home. Ahh…' Lying there on the very comfortable cushion felt like the pain I had been racked with before was oozing out of my pores and drying up like an old creek bed in the summer.

A sudden creaking noise followed by a wooden "thunk" caught my attention. I tried to open my eyes, but when I did, all I could see was a dim grey light.

'That's not right,' I thought. 'Where am I? Why can't I see?'

"It looks like he'll recover." The owner of the voice could not have been too far to my right. I tried to move, but my neck was too stiff to move, and the more effort I put into it, the more it hurt. So I decided to stay still. "I must say, I'm surprised by this young one's will to live. Many times over the past four days, I was sure he would perish. And I'm sure his heart stopped at least twice."

"But doctor," a woman said, "how is that possible? How did his heart restart? Did you use magic?"

'That sounds like the woman from before,' I thought. 'Wait, magic? Who would believe in such fairy tale stuff?'

"No," replied the elderly doctor. "This lad's heart started itself back up. Besides, do I look like a stinking half-elf! I can't use magic."

'Hmm,' I thought, 'first magic, and now elves… what next, unicorns?'

"Perhaps it was a Unicorn horn?" said a new voice. "I've heard they have extreme powerful medicinal properties.

Moaning internally I thought, 'I'm losing my mind.' Then an idea struck me. 'Maybe… maybe I'm dreaming, and I'll wake up soon. Yeah, this is all a dream, yeah.'

"Unicorn! Where in tarnation are you folks coming up with this fantastical rubbish?" The silent seconds drolled on until the doctor moved away from where he was standing with thick heavy footsteps, each eliciting a loud thud from the thick sounding wooden floor. "If anything develops, please, come and get me again" Again, a loud creaking came from a short distance away followed by a wooden "thunk".

"Well, that could have gone better," said the woman.

"Mmm," agreed the man.

'What was his name again… Oh, I remember now.' I tried to snap my fingers, but both my arms were numb. "His name was Kratos." It took me a full minute to realize I said that out loud.

"I see," said the man, Kratos. "So you know my name."

'Why is he so edgy all of a sudden?' I tried to move my head toward his voice, but it was still too stiff and painful. "I remember that pretty lady saying it. I remembered what your voice sounded like, so I put the pieces together and…"

The woman most likely saw me trying to move, because she moved to my side and gently restrained me. "Don't move," she said, "You've been through a lot, and your body must recover."

"How long?" They must have been surprised by my question. Neither one of them volunteered an answer, so I asked again. "How long will I be unable to move?"

There was an uncomfortable grunt before Kratos said, "Your minor wounds will be fully healed or close to that in a week. However…" he trailed off and again there was a long uncomfortable silence.

"Kratos!" the woman insistently said under her breath.

Grunting, Kratos said, "If you let your right arm heal properly, you might be able to use it again. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to do so in one week. To heal it well enough to use it, you must not move your arm for six months."

"Six months," I said under my breath. 'But what about my friends. I have to find them and get out of this place.'

"Don't worry, once you are able to move, you should be able to go home." The woman stood up and walked toward where Kratos' voice was emanating from. "Where do you live? From the way you are dressed, I'd say it was Palmacosta."

"I." I stopped. 'How do I tell them I don't have any clue where I am? I guess I should just tell them what I know.' I cleared my throat and went on. "I was in the field, I don't know how I got there, but I soon found monsters. Actually, I think they found me. After that I was chased by them to where you found me, and, well, you know the rest."

"Yes," interrupted Kratos, "But tell us where you live, and if you don't know how you ended up in the field, tell us what you remember before that."

'Great, he saw right through that. I guess there isn't any way of getting around it.'

"Well?" Kratos prompted.

"In all honesty, I don't know how I got here. I remember being in a museum with our class, and then this monster appeared. It was going after Marty, so me and Colin tried fighting it. But then it killed Colin, and I… I picked up the closest thing to me and ran straight for it. I don't know how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was in a room. A room with the field I ended up in painted on the walls and the ceiling painted to look like the sky. And when I left the room, I really was in the field."

"A museum, hmm." Kratos went silent for a moment, and then said, "The only museum in Sylvarant is in Palmacosta."

'I can't take this anymore,' I thought and then said, "Uh… Can some one, remove the bandages from my face. It's kind of scaring me just talking to bodiless voices."

"Does it unnerve you?" Kratos asked.

I tried to nod, but again found my movement impaired. 'I'm really getting tired of this.' My neck felt like it was being held in place with a piece of wood. "Yes it does," I said, "I remember what you look like, but right now, the only image that comes to mind is that of a guy who teaches gymnastics, is really tall, buff, and has a pointy head."

Kratos was the first to start sniggering, and then the woman joined in. Soon though, Kratos had started to hand out great heaving bursts of laughter, sure to bring any self respecting straw house to its foundations. It was a truly jovial moment, except for me, because when I tried to laugh, I only hurt myself. When everyone had calmed down, I once more asked, "Please?"

"Are you sure you don't like the image you have now," the woman asked between fits of giggles. Moments later, I felt her weight next to me on the bed and I then felt my head being moved as she unwrapped the cloth bandages from around my eyes. After I could see again, I looked over at Kratos who was facing away with his head down. Then I looked back up at the woman who was watching Kratos. "He's never going to let any harm come to him." she said absently.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Instead of explaining, Kratos turned around and in his arms was a small child, a baby. "Oh, I see." Hesitantly, I asked, "W-what's his name?"

"Lloyd Aurion." The woman said. She smiled up at Kratos as he handed the baby to her. "He'll grow up to be just a strong as his father," she paused and then continued with a mischievous grin plastered across her face, "though hopefully, he won't be so thick headed."

"Perhaps, he will take after you Anna, and be so gentle and idealistic that he won't need to fight." Kratos and Anna looked at each other and smiled fondly.

I looked at the two and thought, 'they must really be in love with each other. Man that is so sappy. Adults are weird.' Then I remembered the moves Kratos used to kill the insects. "Can you teach me to sword fight?" Kratos and Anna turned to look at me, concerned looks again strewn across their visages. Oh crap, I said that out loud.

* * *

I beleive that Kratos is where Lloyd gets his blockhead gene because if you'll look at exhibit A, it took Kratos nearly the ENTIRE game to realize that he didn't have to die to atone for his sins. If you ask me, that is pretty thick. The reason he doesn't seem thick all the other times in the game is because, hmm, let's just say he's old, very old. And yes, I realize that what I just said is a major spoiler, but if you havn't played the game, then reading this chapter was a spoiler. Reader beware, I enjoy ruining the game for those who havn't played it and with to learn things on their own, otherwise, you don't need to worry. 

At first, I wasn't sure when I was injecting these three into the story, but it all came to me when I wrote this chapter, so, from here on out, it gets way more interesting. My idea of how this part of history took plays in Tales of Symphonia!


	3. Chapter 3

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

"Alright, Alex, attack!" I lunged forward, swinging my sword above my head and then back down. Of course I missed. Kratos simply stepped to the side. I wasn't expecting the chop to the neck though. I landed heavily on the grassy hill and all the air was knocked out of my lungs. I thought grass would make training easier, but I didn't realize until we started yesterday that grass hides the hard dirt it grows in. 

Struggling to breathe even a mouthful of air I looked up at Kratos. He was waiting patiently with his arms crossed. I know I was new at this, but he didn't even have to draw his sword. That is so pathetic. I attempted to speak, but the air caught up in my throat. I did manage to choke out, "Oww…"

"Hmph." Kratos' head was now tilted to one side. His expression clearly said he was not impressed and expected more. "Is this the resolve with which you wish to protect your friend with?" he asked. "Remember what I first asked you? Well do you?" Yeah, I remember. It was the day after I asked him to train me.

"Why do you want to fight?" he had asked. I tried to turn my head to look up at him, but my neck was still as stiff as a board. At least the bed I was confined to was comfortable. I looked at Kratos as he stood over me looking down. He wasn't frowning, but, he wasn't smiling either.

"I… I have to protect my friends," I said. "I don't want to lose anymore friends because I don't know how to fight."

"I suppose," he said, "but what happens when you know how to fight, and you are still unable to protect your friends. What then? Being able to fight has nothing to do with being able to protect your friends." How am I supposed to answer that? I shifted my gaze so that I was staring at the ceiling. The splintered wood started giving off soft thuds as rain began to fall outside. I looked as far to my left as I could and outside the window I could see pregnant, dark, purple clouds hovering in the sky, just now beginning to let loose its fury.

"Why does it matter anyway?" I asked. It annoyed me that my reason wasn't good enough. It felt good enough. I mean, isn't being ready to sacrifice yourself for a friend a good thing?

"It matters," he replied softly. "Fighting for others is worthwhile, yes. It is a worthy cause, but fighting itself is separate from the act of protecting. I am asking you why you want to fight."

I hated admitting it to myself, but I knew he was right. Then what did I want to fight for? I want to protect my friends, but I also think I'll have to fight when my friends are not in danger. So why exactly do I want to fight?

"If you hadn't shown up when you did," I said. Kratos shifted his gaze from the rain outside to me again. "I would have died. Those monsters would have killed me."

"Yes, but instead, I killed them," he replied.

"I know that, so then, why did you fight?"

"I," Kratos paused. "I fought to save your life. All life is precious to me, but sometimes a monsters life must be taken to feed a family, or save a person's life. Those monsters fought to survive, just as I did, in your place."

"Then I want to fight… to survive," I said. "Not because I have to, but because I need to." Kratos looked back up at the rain pounding on the window. His eyes were looking for something, I'm not sure, but they didn't seem to find whatever they were looking for. I was seeing the same look in his eyes now, as I lay on the grassy hillside, trying breath, six and a half months later.

"I remember," I said, my breathing normalizing as I stood up. A light breeze played across the hillside, making the grass wave about, appearing to come alive. I felt the muscles in my back and some other places I didn't know existed when I was fully back on my feet. "I said I'm going to fight, and I meant it."

I spotted my sword a few feet away from me and moved to pick it up. As soon as I grabbed the hilt of my purple blade a boot connected with my behind and I was again sent flying through the air. I landed on the slope of the hill and slid on the grass a few feet. This time I had the benefit of landing on my back. It didn't make it feel any better, but at least I didn't lose my breath. The sky was getting dark. I could see clouds rolling in from the mountains to the southwest.

"Never take your eyes off of the enemy," said Kratos. He is an evil, evil man. Who kicks a guy when their down? And I'm just a kid to boot.

I grunted and stood back up, now ignoring the pain in my back and butt. This time I kept a wary eye on Kratos who stood as before, arms crossed, looking for something but never finding it.

I charged up the hill at Kratos, holding the blade in front of me in a defensive posture that the man I was charging taught me yesterday. I leaped into the air and swung the sword upward, hoping to at least catch his clothing. But of course, I missed again, and Kratos didn't even have to move very far. He just leaned back, albeit a bit farther than I thought he had to. After my sword had passed his head, he grabbed my waist and using my own upward momentum, threw me over his head.

I sailed through the air and got to see the surprised faces of Anna and Lloyd as I passed right over their heads. And then I fell from the sky onto the other side of the hill. I slid down the other side a few yards, again the air was knocked out of me. When I finally came to a stop, I tried to open my eyes, but my eyes weren't taking orders. I was wheezing, trying to breathe air into lungs that were collapsed. I've never had so much trouble breathing before.

"You sacrificed your entire defense so that you could attack," said Kratos. "Once you lose your defense, it is three times harder to regain." When I had enough breath in me to push myself up once more, I found out that I scraped my knee and there was blood seeping out. Looking around, I found my sword had landed a few feet further down the hill. Some of the grass had been chopped up as it slid down.

Once I retrieved my sword I thought I heard laughter. It was coming from the top of this hill, but all I could see was Kratos dark brown cloak. I sheathed my sword and started up the hill. As I did, the sounds of baby noises started to filter into the laughter.

When I finally made it to the top, I found Anna with her hand over her mouth as she giggled to no end. Lloyd was now sitting on the ground and Kratos was kneeling in front of him making the most ridiculous face. Despite the pain coursing through my back, I couldn't help cracking up. It was too funny seeing a man I rarely see smile making a face like that, something a clown would envy. We all laughed at Kratos' faces as he changed them up every few seconds, the next one always seeming more funny than the previous.

I fell onto the ground and reacquainted myself with the injuries Kratos had given me. Shortly, the pain faded into the mirthful atmosphere. I was rolling on the grass trying to breathe, this time from laughing to hard. Even Kratos stopped making faces because every time he started laughing to hard to keep the funny face long. The laughter died down and everyone looked at each other. It was about two seconds before we started laughing again.

For the next few minutes we sat on the hill and laughed. And then the clouds I had seen earlier decided that it was time to rain. Anna picked up Lloyd and bundled him inside of her dark brown cloak while Kratos did the same for me. Together we ran all the way back to Asgard.

Asgard, the Windy City. I only learned about this place after I was allowed to get up from the bed. That was about a month ago. My arm was still all trussed up in a sling going over my left shoulder. I was only allowed to explore as long as I didn't go too close to the very large ravine. I wound my way through the town, visiting all the shops, looking at the all the hotels from the outside. I tried going in one of them, but the owner threw me out almost as soon as I stepped through the door.

"Paying customers only!" he shouted. What a jerk. I noticed there were a lot of people in this city, more than could possibly live here. And so when I noticed they were all going too and from a single area of town, I decided to see what all the commotion was.

That's when I found this massive monument. It was huge, at least twice as tall as me. Four obelisks in each of the corners of a large stone slab placed at the top a long stair case. I couldn't see over the side of the slab, but on the board next to the monument was a diagram of the structure. I couldn't read the words around the picture, but I could just make out an image engraved on the top of the stone slab.

The wind at the top of the stairs was almost enough to blow me over, but I managed to grab a hold of someone before I fell back down the stairs. When I looked up I found myself latched onto the arm of a redheaded guy. But what stuck out about him, and rendered me speechless, was the pointed ears on the side of his head.

"I- I- I-" I stuttered as I tried to stand back on my own two feet. "Sorry," I said while coughing into my good hand. The redhead just shook his head and walked away.

"Humans." He said and then spat on the ground. I watched him walk down the stairs with his head hung low. Every person who saw him glared, as if he were the town bad luck charm. Thinking back to when he looked down on me, hanging on to his arm. I realized that while his eyes showed surprise, they were also hurt and afraid. That didn't make sense. Why was he afraid of me, I couldn't even move my arm, let alone hurt him.

So, I followed him.

He ended up walking all the way to the back of the housing area. When he came to a very dirty and run down shack with pieces of thin wood for a roof. The roof though didn't do a good job of keeping anything out. It was covered in holes and cracks, rot could easily be pointed out in certain places. The walls, at least the outside walls weren't much better. Worn-out white sheets, at least they used to be white, hung loosely and worn from the frame of the shack. The door was a step above, a strip of leather that had been tacked onto a wooden frame.

I came up to the door and was about to knock on the wooden frame when I heard something that stopped my hand in its track. It was sobbing. He came back to this hut to sob. I shook my head and made my way back into the main part of town.

I passed an old man not far from the redheads shack. He was really decrepit for a living person. His hair was missing in some places, and not in others. His teeth, well they looked like tree bark they were so bad. His skin was dark brown in some spots, a sick green in others, and black in others. And he smelled, bad.

"Heh, heh. Hey sonny!" he called to me. I stopped and looked at him. "Come to look at the freak, eh?" he said.

"Why is he crying?" I asked and looking back at the shack.

"He's a stinkin half-elf that's why!" the old codger shouted angrily.

"Is that what he is?" I continued to look at the redhead's shack, only now wonder-struck. A half-elf, that's awesome. A real life half-elf. I really am in a fairy tale or something. The old man broke me out of my thoughts though.

"Serves that dirty wretch right, seeing as him and his kin cause so much pain in Sylvarant," said the old man. I looked down at him and I saw the same look in his eyes that the people walking by the red head had. Only now it was clear, it wasn't resentment, it was hatred.

"Wha- what did he do?" I asked.

"Them things ruin everyone's lives!" shouted the old man. "They can't do nothin good, only bad."

"Okay," I said, "but what did he do?"

"Feh," the old man snorted. "That one's just the next generation. He hasn't done nothin yet, but give 'em time, he'll think of something. And then its-Scleech" The old man drug a two fingered, stumpy hand across his neck. But I got the message. That redhead would die if he ever fought back against all the people giving him the looks. That struck me way more than simply unfair.

I saw that redhead a few days later, only he had a black eye and was beginning to bleed as a group of boys were kicking him. My arm had just come out of the sling, but I still wasn't allowed to move it very much. Kratos had even said that the bones in my arm would break again if I did move it too far.

I ran for the group of boys, picking up a stick with my good arm as I ran. When I was close enough, I slammed the stick into the back of one of the smaller boys. He went flying head first into one of the larger boys. All of them stopped kicking the redhead and circled around both of us.

"What're you, some stinkin half-elf lover?" one of the boys yelled at me. I just held the stick up in front of me, prepared to stick it to them if any of them came at me.

"Yeah, why you do that?" another boy shouted. One of the boys behind me started to dash toward me, but I heard his footsteps in the gravel and spun out of the way, accidentally hitting him in the face as I did so.

The group fell silent and stared as the boy I had knocked in the face stood up and pulled his hand away from his face to find it covered in blood.

"Whaaaaaa-" he screamed and ran off. The rest of the boys followed after him. I threw the stick at them, watching it sail through the air and eventually fall into the ravine.

When I looked behind me the red head was just standing up. I walked toward him, intending to help, but he fell back down and backed away on his bruised hands and then covered his hands over his head and pulled his knees up.

I could hear him sobbing again. There were small pools of dirt laden blood all over the ground where he was lying. I carefully stepped around the blood and crouched down next to the redhead. He was shaking and only shook harder when he realized I was crouching next to him.

"Hi," I said, "My name's Alex. What's yours?" The poor guys kept shaking and didn't look up. "You know, normally when someone gives their name, you're supposed to give your own back." He whispered something into the dirt, I couldn't hear him, but I noticed he was shaking less. "What was that?" I asked. "I couldn't hear you."

"I… don't have a name," he said, though his voice was coarse. I couldn't blame him though, he was practically breathing the dirt, he was crying, and he had just gotten the snot beaten out of him by kids half his size. "I don't deserve a name. Just a worthless piece of street trash thrown in disgust to the side of the road."

"I see," I said. "Well that won't do. First off it isn't easy to say, and second, that means you have fourteen word name. Mr. 'Worthless Piece of Street Trash Thrown in Disgust to the Side of the Road', we'll just have to give you a name." The redhead looked up at me incredulously. And then he became angry.

"Do you enjoy torturing me?" He shouted. "Just leave! Leave me alone!"

I sighed. This was really annoying. "If I wanted to torture you, I'd have joined those boys and given you a good kick." Obviously nothing was getting through this guys thick skull. "Look, would I have driven those kids off if I wanted to torture you?" I asked. The redhead remained silent for a long while. I got tired of waiting and continued. "It's not like you've done anything to deserve a beating."

"It doesn't matter," he said.

"It does matter," I insist. "If a person hasn't done anything wrong, then-"

"Don't you get it," he shouted, "I'm a half-elf. A stinking, bloody half-elf that's the scum of the world, no one to love or be loved by, no one to care for or to care for me. It doesn't matter if I haven't done anything, they don't care, nobody cares." I was taken a bit back by his sudden outburst. But then I realized one thing he was wrong about.

"You're wrong," I said. "I care." He looked me straight in the eye and I looked right back. "You know," I said after a good few minutes, "you look just like my cat back home. Same eyes and hair color. How about we name you Harley?"

Since the first time I met him, that was the first time I saw Harley smile. Though tears were running down his cheeks, he was smiling. After that, we hung out together all the time. I told him about Colin, Marty and how I was from a different world. He seemed to take it well enough, if passing out face first into a cow pie is healthy. He told me all he had learned about Sylvarant, at least the area around Asgard. And he even knew some of the legends. And of course, I learned from Harley about the Church of Martel. What a load of baloney.

I was heading out to see Harley again, when Kratos tossed me the sword I found and said we were going to train now. No warning or anything, just here's your weapon, let's go. Of course I was too excited about learning how to fight to care about that very much. After the first day, most of which was running around, swinging at nothing, and learning basic battle stances, I was too tired to see Harley.

So when it started to rain today, I knew the first place I was going to go when we all got back into town. Unfortunately, when we did make it back to town, I found myself being pressed against a wall, a nervous and alert Kratos holding me there, and several armed men walking the streets. They were looking for something, or someone. And from the way Kratos and Anna were acting, it didn't look like we were going to be able to walk out in the open. The rain didn't look like it was going to be letting up any time soon either, which meant the streets would be wet and muddy.

"Kratos," I whispered. "Are those guys looking for us?" He looked at Anna and then down at me and nodded. Before I could say anything more, we were quickly moving down the street, past the closed shops, past the hotels, which were surprisingly also closed, and into the housing area. There we all ducked into an alley as another squad of armed men marched past us.

"Kratos," Anna said, "Are we going to take him with us." She nodded towards me. I looked up at Kratos and was about to say something when he pulled us all further back into the shadows of the alley.

"It would be too dangerous," he said. "We must leave him here." I felt my mouth drop ever so slightly. They were going to leave me. They saved me for crying out loud, they can't just leave me. I don't even know how I got here, let alone how to get home. "We'll discuss this further when we arrive back at the house."

"What do we need to get?" Anna asked in a low voice. She looked over Kratos' shoulder to see if anyone was near and then looked back at Kratos.

"The Flamberge is there still," he said, "as well as the craft materials that we have collected so far." Anna nodded and I could see her clutching Lloyd through her cloak, and I think I heard him complaining, probably from being wet.

"Let's go," order Kratos.

He walked slowly to the other end of the alley and peered out. Thankfully it fed into a side street. It was hard to tell through all the rain and now the fog that was forming, but it looked clear. So we quickly walked down the street until we came to the only main street in Asgard's housing area. I'm not sure if it was luck or coincidence, but the housing complex we were staying it was directly across the street from where we were.

Unfortunately, there were two squads hanging around the area and if we made any kind of attempt to cross the street, we would be spotted. I sighed. This was not a good day, not at all. But if I was going to be left behind, then I wanted to help these two, they did save me after all.

* * *

THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW

* * *

Kratos and Anna could only watch as Alex ran out into the street, waving his sword above his head like a madman. He stopped in the middle of the street, and looked around. Then he put his fingers to his mouth and gave a long and loud whistle. That sure got the armed men's point of view. They all leveled their weapons at him. 

"Hey losers, betcha can't catch me!" Alex shouted, and then ran off down the street. Alex splashed and drenched one of the armed men standing to the side when he ran through a large puddle of water. It didn't take long for the street to clear of the search squads as they all chased Alex down the street and into an alleyway.

"Heh, smart kid," said Kratos. He pulled Anna behind him across the street.

"We'll have to thank him later," she said, matching Kratos' pace. The two made their way into the housing complex and pulled back their hoods. "Let's hurry and get out of here," Anna said urgently.

"I doubt we'll see him again," said Kratos, "but yes, if we do, we must thank him." He started to fiddle with the handle on the door, unlocking it, and pushed it open. Once inside, he waited for Anna to enter and then closed the door. Once he was sure it was secured, he turned around and started to move the bed away from the wall while Anna started gathering and stuffing food stuffs into a large cloth bag. Behind the bed lied a sword wrapped in cloth save for the hilt, and a small bundle of item next to it.

When Kratos finished pushing the bed back into place he placed the two items he found on the bed. He opened and small satchel of items first. Nodding his head after he counted all of the pieces, he tied it back up and then moved to the sword. Unwrapping it, he made sure that the surface of the blade had neither nicks nor scratches, as if that could ever happen in the first place. The blade was fire, forged into the blade of a sword, indestructible and very deadly.

Satisfied, Kratos wrapped the sword back in the cloth and brought the two items with him to stand next to Anna. She had just finished tying the bag shut when the door burst open. Both of them spun around to come face to face with the barrel of a gun. Before they knew it, there were seven more guns pointed at their heads. All they could do was stand there and watch as the room filled with armed men, all armed to the teeth, all gunning for the Kratos and Anna.

"I've finally found you," a slippery and contemptuous voice said slowly from just outside the door. Kratos narrowed his eyes. "You filthy female host body, A012, are going to die, and the Angelus Project will be back where it belongs. And the filthy human who helped in your escape will also die, meeting a pitiful end he so deserves."

Kratos breathed in a ragged breath before he said one word, one name. His voice, full of disgust, loathing, and fear at the same time. He said, "Kvar."

* * *

Oooh, it's getting interesting. Well, tell me what you think. 


	4. Chapter 4

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

I ran away from the armed men, away from Kratos and Anna, hoping that I gave them enough time to get their things and get away without being caught. The longer I ran, the more tired I became, which allowed the soldiers chasing me to close the distance between us. I ran toward the entrance of Asgard, hoping in the back of my mind that I could lose them once I made it outside the city. 

As time went on, the rain combined with the dirt that makes up the cities streets and created mud, lots of it. The mud slowed me down, making it difficult to move quickly. But I knew that since I was having a hard time, so were they. I pushed myself harder, pumping my legs in and out of the squishy ground, attempting to go faster. Unfortunately, I fell down and slid through the mud when I felt something reach out and sting my right leg. When I stopped moving, I looked back, and through mud clogged eye sockets, I saw a bright crimson line stretching from my the back of my knee to my heel.

"It's no use running kid," said one of the soldiers as he slowly walked toward me. "We'll always be faster and stronger than you filthy humans." The soldier's boot connected with my side, sending long nails of pain shooting through my body. When I was able to breathe again, the first thing I did was cough it all out. "Never oppose the Desians, kid, or we'll kill you. Got that, human?" He emphasized human with another kick, this one in the ribs.

I coughed a few more times. The pain was intense, but it gradually lessened until I could look up and glare at the soldiers. Then I noticed something flying toward their heads. They didn't notice it because they were all sneering at me, but someone was throwing large rocks at them. When the first one hit the Desian who was kicking me, he went down faster than a load of bricks, his helmet bashed in on the side.

The other Desian soldiers continued to stare at this until another of their number was taken down by a similar rock. I groaned as I maneuvered my sore body to sit on the mud beneath me. Meanwhile the Desians all started frantically searching about for their attacker, but like me, none of them were able to see who it was through the torrential rain.

I started to inch away from the soldiers, walking like a crab would, backwards. After I had moved about a foot, another rock took out a Desian. They all scrambled to get out of the area, heading in the opposite direction I was going.

I stopped moving, relief flooding through my aching body, alleviating some of the pain even. Something caught my attention though, it sounded like moving water, only more of a gooey sound than water would have. A moving river of goo. Yeah. It sounded like a goo river, but why did it sound like it was coming from the ravine, behind my back.

I looked behind me and became horrified. I was sitting in a patch of mud that was slowly slipping over the side of the ravine. I immediately tried to crawl back the other way, but after sitting in one spot for so long, my arms and feet were now stuck in the crawling mud slide. I couldn't put forth the effort to pull them free because every time I tried, the spots that the Desian had kicked me in burnt with the kind of agonizing pain that immobilized my entire body.

I started to panic, my breathing became quicker, and even in the rain I could feel sweat forming all over my body. I had survived the monster in the museum, the evil bugs, even part of Kratos' training, only to end up dieing by falling off of a muddy cliff.

I looked up at the sky and asked what powers were up there, 'Why? Why do you put me through this? Why?' Then, as if in answer to my plight, Harley pokes his head over the edge of the incline. His eyes widened as he saw what was happening.

"How did you get into it like this?" he asked. I shook my head. It would take too long to explain, and I didn't feel like sliding down this embankment any more than I had to.

"Never mind that," I said, "find some sort of rope or tree branch for me to grab onto. I can't pull myself out because the Desian guys hurt me too much." Harley looked down sadly for a moment before he nodded and disappeared again. I craned my neck to look behind me. The edge of the ravine was slowly getting closer and closer. I briefly wondered what it would feel like to fly over the side of the edge and free fall to my death. Those thoughts were quickly and vehemently pushed to the side.

Harley reappeared over the edge of the incline and started maneuvering a rather long, wooden pole until one end was under my arm and the other was above Harley's head. He jumped up to and grabbed onto his end. I immediately felt the pressure under my arm as the long pole pried me free of the mud. My right hand was the first to pop out of the mud. Water from the rain filled the vacuum that the mud created underneath my hand. Then my left hand did the same. Finally, my feet were free, and I was able to make my way up the small incline to stand next to Harley.

A scream filled the air, I turned just in time to see Anna trip and lose her grip on the small bundle that I assumed was Lloyd. He flew through the air landed in the exact spot I was stuck in. He began to cry profusely as he not only got wet and muddy from underneath, but also drenched from the rain above. I looked back to Anna, who was trying her damnedest to free her feet of the thick mud so that she could run after Lloyd.

I sighed and looked back up at the sky. 'You must enjoy doing this, don't you?' I asked the powers above. I sighed again and grabbed a hold of the pole next to me. I slowly and carefully made my way to where Lloyd was crying and plucked him with the customary muddy squelch. I looked him over to make sure he wasn't hurt or anything, and when I was sure, I turned to make my way back up the incline.

I hadn't even taken two steps when I was stopped in my tracks by the figure standing arrogantly at the top of the mud slickened incline as if it were made of granite. Harley was knocked out behind this newcomer. I studied his rodent like features, the way his small frame seemed to be bulked up by the broad shouldered, blue uniform he wore. I looked nervously over at where Anna was and saw Kratos defending her from several of the Desians soldiers with a sword that looked like it was on fire. In fact steam was billowing off of the blade every time any wetness came into contact with it.

"I see you have that filthy human's offspring," said the man standing in front of me. "A pity you went through all that trouble, only to fail completely." The way his words seemed to slither from his mouth sent shivers down my spine. Lloyd's crying turned into sobs when I griped the boy tighter. "I'll just have to help you along then, won't I," said the man as he slowly raised his right hand and pointed it at me. When I saw the shape of a gun, though it was of a kind I'd never seen before, I knew what this man intended to do. I grabbed the hilt of my sword at the same time that he fired.

"KVAR!" shouted Kratos as he finished off the last few Desians with one swing of his sword and sprinted as best he could through the mud toward the man who just fired his gun.

Everything slowed down, time it seemed, wanted me to remember this with perfect clarity. Just as I pulled my sword free of its scabbard, the shot left the muzzle of the gun. I tried to pull the sword in front of me to deflect whatever it was that was being shot at me, but I didn't pull the blade around in time and I was hit in the shoulder by the shot. I was driven back by the force of the bullet, so much force that I left the ground and flew into the air over the ravine.

As I fell through the air, into the dark depths of the ravine, I thought about Marty and Colin. Would they be happy that I died trying to do the right thing. Could they bear the pain of knowing that I died trying to save another person's life. I hoped so.

I focused on the darkness rushing up to greet me from below, the walls of the ravine passing by me in my peripheral vision at speeds that defied logic. And just when I thought it was all over. When I was surrounded by complete darkness and sure that the bottom of the ravine was close at hand, my sword grew bright. I looked down at the blade in awe and watched the light on the blade shoot off into the distance, forming a large circle of light directly below me.

I closed my eyes just as I fell through the circle, expecting to spend the rest of my time as a splat on the ravine floor. I opened them again when I lightly touched down on a soft, padded, kind of rubbery floor mat. I looked around in the pitch darkness, completely lost for words, and completely confused.

"I see," said a regretful voice to my left. "So you are my opponent." A man wearing a full body suit that glowed in an inticate design iluminated his form in the darkness. Lloyd started crying in my arms again forcing me to shift my attention back to the child in my arms. "You brought an infant into the arena! Are you mad?" shouted the man. I looked back at the man across from me. His outfit, with the lights and all, it looked somehow familiar. "No matter," he said. "You know the rules of combat. All is fair until one side lies defeated." He unsheathed a long glowing sword from his side and brought it to rest in front of him in a defensive posture. "Stand and fight!" he demanded.

I stood up slowly, shushing Lloyd as best I could. I was not that well versed in baby talk, let alone calming one down. I gripped my own glowing purple sword in my right hand and slowly walked away from the swordsman. However, he had a different plan. The man attacked , running directly at me, glowing sword held high. I heard his rapid footsteps and jumped to the side just as his sword crashed down on the ground, sending pebbles flying into the air.

I back pedaled just as another swing of that sword barely missed my head. The glowing man chuckled and reversed the hold he had on his sword, holding it so that the blade was flush against his arm. I barely brought my sword up in time to block the attack I never saw coming. My own blade was knocked back with such force that I didn't have time to move it before another blow knocked me back into a wall.

"I didn't know the famous Child Knight was such a weak foe," said the man while swinging his sword in front of him. Wait… did he just call me the Child Knight, that famous VGer. "If I had, I, the Great Gangrene, wouldn't have wasted my time by agreeing to a full team combat match." Yeah, I remember GG was going up against the Child Knight in full team combat. I was saving my allowance along with Marty and Colin to buy tickets. But, that was over six months ago. And… that was back at home. Then full realization struck me like a bolt of lightning. I'm back! I'm finally home!

"Yes!" I shouted, jumping up and down. "I finally made it home. Home, I'm home!" Lloyd seemed to enjoy going up and down because he started to giggle and laugh with abandon, as babies often do. I looked down at Lloyd and realized that now he is in the same situation that I was in.

"You won't be so jubilant when you lay defeated at my feet, Child Knight," taunted the Great Gangrene. "It is now time to decide the winner of this battle. Come, let us end this." The glowing man lunged at me with his glowing sword, which looked so familiar I had to laugh. It was the exact same thing that I did to Kratos. I followed his example and stepped to the side. GG's lunge carried his sword at least three feet into the wall, over half the blade's length.

"I may not be the Child Knight," I said, "but I'm not that bad at fighting." I pulled my sword and brought it down as hard as I could on his. It happened so fast I didn't realize what I had done until the lights came on, illuminating the entire arena. I sheathed my sword at my side, studying the damage I had done. My own sword, being a real blade, had cleaved his V-Sword in half. GG fell heavily to the ground, staring dumbfounded at the point where his blade now ended. I looked down at Lloyd in my arms and smiled, he was asleep.

"I stand corrected," said the Great Gangrene, standing up. He put the remains of his sword in the metal tube like sheath at his side. "You claim not to be the Child Knight. By what alias does your avatar go?" I stared up at him. The Great Gangrene, one of the most well known VGers in the world, wanted to know _my _name.

"I… I… I…" I stammered. Great now I realize who I'm talking to. I stare up at him, mesmerized "I'm Alex… Alex Enstryker." I swallowed loudly, realizing I was standing in front of a famous VGer who I had just defeated in a one on one match.

"Well, that is certainly a unique name," he said. "I will look forward to meeting you in battle once more, Enstryker." GG bowed deep and slowly faded from existence. I continued to look on and watched the battle field I was standing in melt away into the flat, multicolored VG stadium floor.

Spinning in place, looking at the entire stadium from top to bottom, I realized just how large this place really was. I also realized how many people there were. Hundreds of thousands of people were in the seats, thunderously cheering, throwing their hands into the air, throwing other thing into the air, jumping up and down, beating their chests, and so on. It was a spectacular thing to witness, and so, as overwhelmed as I was, and as injured, I wasn't surprised in the least when my vision and the deafening sounds of the multitude of people around me slowly faded into darkened silence.

* * *

Ahh... that felt good. Nothing like a good plot twist. 

**Inri**: "You said it boss!" _Give a two thumbs up_.

This chapter was especially hard to write because I was wondering how I would advance what happens, if it would be good or bad. I initially wanted to send them all to the Ranch, but this was so much better. And the way I've set things up now, well, I'm not gonna give that away. He he he he he he he he he he he he...

**Pit**: "What in the world just happened?"

**Inri**: _Shakes her head and sighs_. "Duh, don't you know, the plot just moved, and now things are much worse than they should be..."

**Pit**: "Oh! Not again with the riddles. Make her stop!"

No, cause I like this twist, so, too bad. Mwaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

**Pit**: "Aww."

Please Reveiw.


	5. Chapter 5

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

I awoke with a start and quickly shot upright, blood pounding in my ears, and pain shooting throughout my body. I heard several people gasp before I was forced to lie back down. My vision was blurred, rendering the three people in the small room as splotches. 

"Ugh…" I grunted. "Where am I?" The words came out as if gravel had replaced my vocal cords. The person holding me down reached over to a small table or stand, I couldn't tell exactly, and picked something up. I realized it was a cup of water when he thrust the conical object at my face.

"Drink," he said, "it's water." I found out how dry my throat was when I took my first sip. When I attempted to down the rest of the small cup's contents in one, large gulp, I choked and coughed nearly all of the water back up. "Easy son," said the man, "not so fast." This time when the cup was thrust at my face, I took short, slow sips, allowing the cool water to run over my taste buds and slide down my throat.

By now my vision had focused, allowing me to see the face of the guy helping me drink. I had no clue who the guy was, but his dark complexion and bright white hair were the most outstanding features he had. I looked at the other two people in the room, a woman who looked concerned and a kid, around my age, who looked like he would rather be eating dirt than sitting in that chair. The woman I didn't know either, but the kid, he looked familiar somehow.

"Now," said the man, "what were you saying?" He reached to the table, now I could tell, and put the cup back. Then he sat down in a chair that sat up against the wall next to the bed I was on. Before I answered I looked around the room once more. I was surrounded by a white V-screen, the ceiling was white, the floor was white, even the bed sheets were white. The bed frame was white, the chairs that my guests sat in were white, everything in this room was white.

"Where in the world am I?" I cried, overwhelmed by all of the white surrounding me.

Suddenly a VT screen formed on the wall behind the woman and the kid. The VG Information Network had been selected and the logo for the station filled the screen. Then that image faded to an image of the host.

"Hello, Dirk Dunban here and this is VGIN News," said the man on the screen. "We had a wild VG National Competition this year." Another screen appeared on the wall next to the original one. At the top of the new screen, 'The Enstriker' was shown in large white letters with electricity skittering over the surface of each word. Other than that, the entire screen was dark.

"The championship game on Friday last week," continued Dunban, "between Team Kingdom and Team Infection hit a climactic height when the two teams agreed to end the match with a one on one captain's duel. As per competition rules, the entire arena was to be without light and the captain who lost the duel would lose the competition for his team as well." On the second screen, a sudden burst of light flashed on the screen and then a person stood where there wasn't one before, barely visible in the darkness save for the glowing purple sword he held.

"Wait, that's me," I shouted at the screen. The kid, who was scowling constantly, crossed his arms and sneered at me. The woman tried to consol the kid, but he shook her hand from his shoulder roughly, preferring to shift his gaze to bore a hole into the floor with his emotionally potent stare.

"Folks," said Dunban, "this is where it gets crazy. Instead of Captain Child Knight appearing, the Enstriker appeared. This unauthorized entrance into the arena by an unregistered civilian is technically against the rules. But when the Enstriker appeared, the match had already begun, and according to basic VG combat regulations, a captain duel cannot be stopped until one of the combatants is defeated. So the battle commence between this mysterious swordsman and Captain Gangrene."

I was transfixed by the battle between me and the Great Gangrene replayed on national VT. Was this really happening? Did I really fight in the championship game and win against a VG captain? Am I dreaming?

"As you can see," said the man next to me, "you were the one fighting Captain Gangrene, instead of our Captain, Child Knight." I looked up at the man, but he continued before I could say anything. "When the match was over, you fell unconscious, which isn't surprising considering the beating you took and the gunshot wound in you shoulder. After that you were brought here, to Ida Mercy Hospital."

Ida… isn't that the next city over from where the museum was? Maybe. "Um… If you don't mind me asking," I started, "could you tell me who you are?"

The man nodded. "I'm Terrance Dymus," he said, "Manager of Team Kingdom." He gestured toward the woman and said, "This is Mary Skylark and her son-"

The kid, who was staring whole heartedly at the floor, suddenly shot out of his chair. "I'll tell you who we are," he shouted as he lunged at me.

He pinned me to the bed, forcing my shoulder and other bruised spots to move in ways hurt, a lot. Quickly enough though, his hands were around my neck, squeezing the life out of me.

"We're the bloody team you stole the championship from!" he screamed angrily. "I'm Child Knight! I was the one who was supposed to defeat Gangrene!"

Each time he shouted something, his face got closer and closer to mine. His spit was flying everywhere. I could feel my lungs start to burn with the need for fresh oxygen.

"But I couldn't even log into the arena because _you _were there instead," he shouted. "It's all _your _fault."

By this time Mary and Terrance were pulling the one known as Child Knight off of me, but they were having trouble because he fought them at every turn. He fought them and stared at me accusingly.

"You stole my victory from me," he shouted, finally letting go of my neck and finally allowing the two adults pull him back and sit him in the chair.

He continued to glare daggers at me. After he let me go, I immediately started coughing and trying to breathe in at the same time. The resulting mix of coughing and breathing would have been comical under different circumstances.

"That's enough Charles," Terrance said sternly. "It's bad enough the shape he's in already. What do you want to do, kill him?" Charles barely even glanced at the older man before he went back to glaring at me.

Once I was able to concentrate on something other than breathing regularly, I glared back at the dirty jerk. I didn't ask to be dumped in the middle of an arena. I thought I was going to die at the bottom of a ravine. I was just shot by a crazy Desian that Kratos called Kvar. I… I thought I was going to die.

"I was going to say sorry," I said. I made sure I was looking Charles right in the eyes. "But I'm not that sorry anymore." I watched the rage build behind his irises, but he was surprisingly able to restrain himself. I decided to keep pushing his buttons. "I didn't know the Child Knight was so…" I stretched out the sarcasm by scratching my chin and then acted as if I just thought of the right word and went back to staring Charles in the eye. "…childish. Maybe you should be called the Childish Knight." I watched his pupils contract until they were little dots, his face turned red, and a few veins popped out of his forehead. "Aww, is da wittle knight angwy," I said in the most baby-coo like voice I could conjure.

The two adults in the room just sighed. I watched Charles clench his fists until his knuckles went from red to white. I swear his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so he continued to sit there and angrily gape at me.

Terrance stepped in between us and shouted, "Enough!" I nearly jumped out of my skin in fright. "Enough," he said again. "Charles, you need to let this go. Now!"

"Bu-"

"No buts," Terrance said sternly. Charles just crossed his arms again and pouted. Terrance turned to me next. "You need to learn your place. I don't know who you are, where you come from, or why you did what you did, but you have no right to criticize him. You aren't even a registered player and you got the privilege of defeating an opponent it took Charles months to get to agree to a match."

"Sorry," I said. "If I had known how much work you put into it…"

"Gah!" Charles shouted. But instead of leaping at me again, he ran through the wall. The wall transformed into a doorway as Terrance followed Charles several seconds later, typical of most V-screens as far as I knew. It could be painful if you didn't know where the door actually was. It is not an experience you'd want to have, running face first into a wall where you'd thought the door was supposed to be.

I looked back and forth between the fading doorway and the forlorn woman. After a few minutes she sat down in the chair, letting out a deep sigh while burying her face in her hands. It remained silent for a few moments, except for the constant beeping of a heart monitor in the distance.

"I don't know if you realize it or not," said Mary, "but you broke his heart when you appeared in the arena." I didn't know what to say. It was obvious to me now that whether I had meant to appear in that arena or not didn't matter to these people. What could I say?

Mary looked up, not glaring at me, but regarding me with saddened indifference. "I suppose it would've helped if you said it was a mistake." Mary stood up and slowly walked toward the door.

"It was a mistake," I said, hoping against what I knew to be true. I'd just made enemies of the Child Knight, his manager, and his mom. Mary paused at the doorway.

Without looking back, she said, "Too late, Grand Champion Enstriker." With that, she continued on her way and left me alone in the completely white room.

Grand Champion Enstriker.

"Grand Champion Enstiker!" I said aloud. "But…"

Before the new information even had a chance to settle the impossibility into my brain, someone new walked in. He was fairly tall. At least, I think it was a he.

"Good evening, Mr. Enstryker. I'm Detective Alice." I was shocked. What looked like a tall, robust man, was in fact a tall, robust woman. "I've got a few questions to ask you about the fire at the Irvingburg's International Museum of Art and History."

"The museum!" I blurted. "There was a fire too? What about the monster? What happened to the monster? What was it for that matter? Are Marty and Colin alri-"

"Calm down, Mr. Enstryker," said Alice, sitting in a chair next to my bed. "I'm asking the questions here." She pulled out a notepad from the trench coat she laid across my bed. Flipping it open, she looked down and cleared her throat.

"Now," she said, "would you tell me where you went with a…" she paused, squinting at the notepad in front of her, "…a Colin Aurent, after you both finished lunch in the Museum Café?" Detective Alice looked up at me and pursed her lips.

I suddenly got a bad feeling about where these questions were going. Carefully choosing my words, I said, "Colin and I finished our lunches and went to find Marty."

"I assume you are talking about one Martel Dhaos," said Alice. "Both Ms. Dhaos and Mr. Aurent are still missing." I couldn't believe what I just heard. Missing?

"But…" I stammered. "What happened to them?"

"That is what I came here to find out," said the Detective. She looked down her nose at me as if I were a piece of meat. "Would you care to explain where you've been? And while you're at it," she continued, "tell me where the other two are."

"I…" I stopped. Would she even believe me? Eh… might as well give it a go. She already looked like she didn't believe me. "I was in a different universe," I said matter-of-factly.

"Uh-huh…" she said. Judging from her response, she really didn't believe me now. "And the others?"

"I have no clue," I said honestly and truthfully. "I thought I was the only one who went to another dimension."

"Right," Alice dragged out. "And I suppose that the fire was caused by a magic rocket ship that took you to this other universe." She was obviously not happy, and by the look she was giving me, not patient either. "Young man, you obviously don't understand how much trouble you're in. Let me explain the finer details of your predicament." Detective Alice stood up and started pacing around the room.

"Right now you and your friends are suspected of arson," the Detective said, "that is, we suspect all three of you started the fire in the museum. You and your friends told your teacher, a-" she paused to check her notepad and then continued. "A Mrs. Clarisse Strickland that you were going to get something you forgot in an exhibit before eating lunch.

"In reality," she said, pausing for effect. "In reality, you three went and started to fool around with the exhibits. In your horseplay, you set fire to the statue of an ancient animal. It was later deduced that the statue that caught on fire gave off a loud roaring as I burned, and emitted a toxic odor into the air.

"This roaring caused panic to fill the building and several fire and security alarms were tripped. When the guards arrived at the scene, they were so frightened by what they saw that they literally became blabbering idiots, unable to communicate for the rest of their lives. What did they see, Mr. Enstryker? I'll tell you. They saw the entire exhibit of pre-WAIII on fire. They saw a flaming statue of an ancient animal fall toward them and seemingly destroy a statue made of solid granite. That's what they saw.

"And do you know what you and your friend did next? I'll tell you that too, since you seem to have gone mute. You, Mr. Aurent, and Ms. Dhaos all realized the extent of your wrong doing. You destroyed all the artifacts left in the world from before WAIII, set them on fire and left them to burn to ashes. So you ran. You ran because you couldn't face what you had done, and because you took what you could save from the flames for yourself. But now you've finally slipped up and shown yourself in public."

"I… Wha… I don't…. Huh?" I stammered. By now the Detective was red in the face from her passionate reiteration of some bogus story. I nearly didn't catch it all because I became mesmerized by the way her eye brow… it moved funny is all. When she brought up Professor Clarisse, I inadvertently looked at the Detective's eye brows. They both twitched in the same… distinct manner. I wonder if what Colin said about zombies was true…

"Mr. Enstryker, you are in enough trouble as it is," the Detective said feverishly. "Why don't you drop the act and tell me the truth. Tell me where the rest of your little friends are? Tell me what you did with the artifacts that you stole. Where did you put them? Didn't you realize the significance of what you took?"

The room fell silent as we both stared at each other. I thought over what the detective had said. They think that Marty, Colin, and I set a fire in the museum. They think that monster that killed Colin wasn't real. Marty and Colin are-

And then it hit me. Colin is missing. Then that must mean he's alive. That monster didn't kill him. But wait, if it didn't kill him and he isn't here, then that means he's back on Sylvarant. And if Marty is missing as well, she must be there too. Then how did I get back?

The sword. The sword saved me and Lloyd when we fell. So maybe that thing I picked up and hit the monster with was really a sword, that sword. And when I hit that monstrous thing, the sword transported me, Colin, and Marty to Sylvarant.

"Mr. Enstryker, I can see you're not being cooperative," said the disappointed detective. "I'm going to have to put you in jail until you are willing to talk." Detective Alice picked up her trench coat and put it on as she prepared to leave. Before she was able to go out the door, the right pocket of her trench coat started to ring and beep.

"Ugh, not again," the detective whined. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her V-Com. "What is it Harrison!" she yelled at the face that appeared on the small, black square device.

The rest of the conversation was much quieter, so I couldn't hear what was said. Something was bothering me about her trench coat though, which didn't seem all that remarkable. It was a dark brown and grey trench coat, with dark stains on the bottom where the water and mud must have splashed. It was normal looking enough, except that I had seen it before, at the museum in fact.

I saw a man wearing a trench coat leaving the museum cafeteria. And shortly after that we found the monster attacking Marty. And now this person, wearing a similar trench coat was asking me about where I put items from that very museum. I suddenly didn't trust this person claiming to be a detective.

"Alright, alright," Alice said to the person on the other end of the V-Com at the same time as shutting the device down. She turned to face me and gave me a look that left no room for argument. "Kid, get up! I'm taking you with me." She turned to leave.

Without thinking about what I was doing, I leaped from the bed and knocked Detective Alice against the wall. She slid down to the floor with her eyes closed. There was a red streak on the wall where she had slid down. The small black V-Com in her hand went flying and shattered in a small explosion against the wall behind the bed.

I stood over the detective until I was sure that she wasn't dying. Then I shot out of the room. I don't know who these people were, but I had to get out of here. I ran down the hall toward the large sign with big red letters spelling out 'EXIT'. I had to find my stuff, especially that sword, and find a way to get me and-

I skidded to a halt and snapped my fingers. Lloyd, I'd almost forgotten to find Lloyd. I quickly glanced around my immediate surroundings and found tacked on the wall right next to me a directory of the hospital. Now, where would they put a baby…

I ran my finger down the list and came to a stop over 'Nursery' and then tapped it a few times. It's on floor five, this floor. Only… it's the other direction. I stopped myself from immediately bolting down the hallway. The nurses wouldn't let me just walk in and take a baby. I had to have something to make them get out of my way…

A devious smile spread across my face before I continued down the hallway. Once I reached the flight of stairs, I raced downward, skipping every other step. I hope what I'm planning on doing doesn't back fire.

* * *

Woo, even more intrigue. This is awesome. I'm loving this story. 

**Pit**: "Well I'm glad you are. Someone tell me what the heck is going on!"

**Inri**: "No, it will spoil the surprise. Besides, you havn't solved my riddle yet."

**Pit**: _Whines_. "Why! Why must you torture me with riddles? I don't know what all that chatter about subterfuge and misdirection means. Please just tell me.

**Inri**: "No."

**Pit**:_ Keeps pouting._

And with that... hey why did Pit just give away clues to the plot?

**Inri**: _Nervously shaking_. "Err... no he didn't."

**Pit**: "I did... wait that means Inri did tell me! Yay... but what does 'The answer is that there are several sides in this, look for clues from the beginning to the end.' mean?"

Inri! What did you do? You know Pit's mouth is enourmous, he'll shout secrets to the world just to spite the definition of 'secret'.

**Inri**: "Eeep." _Dissapears_.

Well... can you readers figure out the riddle... or you could just write a normal review... either one's good with me. Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

Running down the hallways full tilt might not have been such a good idea. After rushing down several flights of staircases, I appeared on the second floor. So naturally, I took off down the hallway, in search of a flight of stairs that led to the first floor. As I ran, I kept getting strange looks from everyone I passed.

Where in the world did they keep people's stuff? I stopped in front of a computer terminal in the wall and was about to start pressing buttons when I heard someone clear his throat to my right. I turned to be greeted by a tall, white lab coat wearing doctor. He motioned downward. I looked down and immediately pushed the hospital gown back down. I thought I felt a draft. After that the doctor cleared his throat again and walked away.

The after wrangling with several computer searches, I finally found the location of my things, on floor five. So I turned around and… moved as fast as possible while holding the hospital gown down. I stopped in front of the elevator bank and stared for a full three seconds. Why didn't I just use the elevators in the first place?

Moaning internally, I pressed a button that would call a car down. I glanced at all four of the displays for each of the elevators. The closest one was the car on floor one, but that was completely full and heading toward the basement. The next closest one was on four, and after that, five and seven. All three of those were empty.

I watched the car that was on floor four go up one level and take on people from floor five. I almost looked away when something caught my attention. One of those people was a tall, robust woman in a trench coat holding a cold pack against her head. Damn, I thought she'd be out longer after that blow to the head. After that the car started to descend and I knew it would stop here because I had pressed the call button.

I was about to head back toward the stairwell, when I noticed that the elevator car one over was descending as well. Great, which way do I go? Back to the stairs or wait to see which elevator stops on this floor. I decided to press my luck and wait around to see which one stopped. Of course knowing my luck, the both would.

The first elevator to ding its doors open made me scramble and by the time I had pressed the button for the fifth floor, the doors on the opposite elevator opened. I locked eyes with the detective, or whatever she was, for one second. In that single second I swear I felt my heart leap into my throat and stop beating. Then the doors on my elevator closed with their distinctive chime and the elevator started to rise.

Relieved, I let out a lungful of air I didn't even know I was holding. Now that I knew where my stuff was, and more importantly, that sword, it was time to put my plan into action. When the doors opened, I immediately bolted past the two doctors and a nurse that were getting on. Once in the hallway, I headed in the direction of my room. Just as I was about to enter it, I saw on the wall, a fire alarm switch. Grinning one of Colin's cheesier and obviously dorky grins, I reached out and pulled the alarm. As I did so I said to myself, "I'm taking one from your play book Colin."

The moment the emergency fire lever was pulled, the entire floor changed color. Instead of steady white lights, strobeing red lights filled the hallways. A voice filled the air warning others that, "A fire alarm had been pulled and there might be a fire, please evacuate." Continuing to grin, I jogged into my room and collided with someone. Rubbing my head, I looked up to see Charles rubbing his head.

"You," he growled. "Where were you? And why is the alarm going off?" I ignored Charles for the moment and crawled over to the bed, and then underneath. There I found my stuff. They even cleaned my clothes too.

"Hey!" shouted Charles as I backed out from the nether regions of the bed and stood up with my stuff. "I asked you a question. Answer it!" I continued to ignore Charles and started to dress. Once I had my pants on I took the hospital gown off and looked it over. If I didn't know better, the hospital wanted people to walk around naked. Throwing the gown over my shoulder without a caring where it landed, I picked up my shirt and pulled it over my head.

"Pfftffpfft. Hey!" Charles shouted, pulling my discarded gown off of his head. "Jerk." I continued to ignore him while I finished buckling my belt. Then I picked up the scabbard and pulled the blade out a small amount before pushing it back in and tying it onto my belt. Satisfied and ready for what I knew was next, I turned to go. Unfortunately, Charles took this opportunity to stand directly in my way.

"Get out of my way, Charley," I said.

"No," he shouted. I need to get to the Nursery before the hospital security figured out what was going on.

"Look," I sighed, "I didn't mean to appear inside that stadium, ok, it was a mistake, so just drop this."

"After the amount of effort I put into getting a shot at that title, you think I'm going to just drop it?" he said. "You must be out of your mind." I don't' have time for this. I was about to grab the hilt of my sword, but then thought of a better idea. "Besides," he continued, "I want to know what that detective wanted with you, you dirty little thief."

I'd had enough of this. "Okay," I shouted, "whatever, so I stole your stupid title. And you know what? I don't want the smelly thing. So you can just take it and go crawl into whatever stinking hole you crawled out of." I didn't have to over act much because this guy really got on my nerves. I wish he would crawl into a hole and get the hell out of my way.

I barely had time to react to his fist flying at my face. Before I knew what was happening, I grabbed a hold of Charley's waist and threw him right past me and into the bed. His momentum pulled him up onto the bed and then off the other side. Happy that the idiot was now gone, I ran out into the hall way.

It was completely deserted except for the random nurse running toward the elevators. Making my way down the hallway toward the nursery, I decided it wouldn't hurt to pull any and all of the fire alarm levers that I came across. So by time I came to the door of the nursery, the alarm had gone from just flashing red in the hallways, to flashing red and white. Now the voice was saying, "Warning, multiple fire alarms have been triggered, please evacuate immediately."

The nursery was in complete pandemonium. Babies of all colors, of all sizes, and of all shape were crying, screaming, and wailing. I jogged in nearly collided with a nurse who had two of the infants in her arms as well as one slung behind her back and in front of her. She excused her self and walked around me and out the door. I looked around but I couldn't find Lloyd anywhere. The noise from the alarm and the babies was over powering so I plugged my fingers into my ears.

I soon came to a corner in the room and just as I rounded the corner, I came face to face with two more trench coat wearing people. These two were guys, this time I was sure. They both looked at each other and then back at me.

"Sonny," said the right one, "you've caused us a lot of trouble." He reached out to grab me, but I jumped back… right into a nurse. She tripped started to fall. The guy who had reached for me instead grabbed the nurse and they both fell. The second guy moved to pick his friend up which allowed me to enter the room behind him.

Jackpot. I found Lloyd asleep in his clear, plastic baby crib. How can he sleep in a room filled with strobeing lights, screaming babies, and a loud voice telling you to leave? I shrugged and carefully picked him up. Running past the two trench coat guys, who were still trying to stand up, I emerged into the hallway.

Bearing down the hallway toward me were fake detective Alice, followed by Charley and Terrance, and behind them were several security guards. I decided to go the other way. As I ran I kept trying to think of a way out of this and my thought kept turning back to the sword swinging at my hip. I glanced over my shoulder and almost missed another stair well.

I decided that going up was better than staying here or going down. So I started leaping up the steps two at a time. By time I had gone up three of the six flights that I could see when I looked up the middle, my pursuers entered the stairwell. It didn't take them long to figure out where I was going or to start gaining on me.

I rounded the last corner and bound up the last flight of stairs and out of the door at the top, bursting onto the tenth floor roof of the hospital. Off to the side was a large white pad with an X painted on it, probably where the Rheapters landed with patients for the hospital. It was now that I found out it was night out, which wasn't that obvious inside. The stars twinkled above and gave the only illumination in the city-light polluted darkness. I guess the moon wasn't in phase tonight.

I walked to the edge of the building and looked down. Below there were a few fire trucks as well as police cars around the entrance to the hospital. People were scrambling about as the fire alarm continued to go off. A crowd had gathered around the police blockade and search lights were lighting up the side of the hospital.

"It looks like you've run out of hiding places, young man." I spun around to find myself facing the false detective and a group of what I could now tell were not security, but police. "This is the kid I told you about," Alice said, "he's the one who started the fire in the museum. I can only assume he intended to do the same thing to this hospital to make good an escape, and with a child no less."

I backed up until I felt air underneath my heel. I was backed up against a rock and facing a hard place. Now what? Then to make matters worse, Charley come into view with his arms crossed. What does he want?

"So, it seems you've finally have no place to run," he said. Wait… didn't that Alice person just say some thing like that. "That's him officers," he said pointing at me. "He's the one who broke into the VG arena during the championship. He's the Enstriker." I looked back and forth between Alice and Charles. Apparently the police were as confused as I was because they stood in their place, keeping watch on me, but glancing back and forth at each other.

"What are you doing?" shouted Alice. "Get him! He destroyed all those priceless artifacts."

"No, he stole my title," shouted Charles. "Arrest him and make him give it back!"

"Why don't you just shut up kid!" shouted Alice. The police stood still, now ignoring me and watching the two arguing to see who would win. I guess they can only arrest me for one reason. I wonder who got these guys up here in the first place, Alice or Charley… eh, either way, it didn't matter. I just hope this sword does what it's supposed to.

"Shut your trap lady," shouted Charles, "I don't give a hooting holler about your museum. He stole my championship and I want him arrested and held until he can give me that title back."

"And I-" Alice paused and then realized dawned on her face and she said, "I want him arrested as well."

Both Alice and Charles turned to me and pointed, shouting in unison at me, "Arrest him!" The police looked back and forth at the two, and then nodded to each other as if coming to a decision. Then as one the small force of police started toward me.

I hoped that it would work again, so I pulled my sword out. The purple blade gleamed in the darkness, casting shadows beyond its lavender light. I held the blade in front of me, gripping Lloyd tighter in my arms. I felt him squirm a bit, but he remained asleep. This child has a really thick head.

The police stopped their advance, wary of the sword I was holding pointed in their general direction.

"Easy son," said one of the officers, "put down the sword and come with us." Even Alice looked on edge, though she did look more like she was mesmerized by the blade than wary of it. Charles on the other hand wasn't impressed in the least.

"He can't even use that sword," said Charley, "he only won that competition because Gangrene was a terrible sword fighter and dumb luck." I really hate that kid. He really has it out for me. Fortunately, the police didn't believe him. "Ugh," Charley shouted in disgust. "Enough of this, I'll take him down." Charley ran toward me and thinking I could knock him out with the base of the pommel, I raised the sword into the air. But before I could bring the hilt back down, Charles leaped into the air and grabbed me around the waist.

We both fell off of the roof.

It seem time wanted me to remember this again, in slow motion, I watched the edge of the roof disappear behind the edge. I felt and heard the wind rushing past. Below several people screamed. I was engulfed in the light of a spot light that followed out descent.

Determined to make this work, regardless of the circumstances, I gripped the sword tighter, maneuvered myself until I was facing the quickly approaching pavement, and held it pointed earthward.

"Sword," I said, "I don't know if you can hear me, but I need you to take us back to Sylvarant." Nothing happened. Now my heart really started to speed up. Only three more stories left before I, Charles, and Lloyd became splat marks on the ground. "Please," I begged the sword.

I closed my eyes just as we were about to hit the ground. Charles, who was falling next to me, screamed. But several seconds later, nothing happened. I opened my eyes and now I couldn't see anything, only complete darkness.

"Wh- what?" I shouted. "Yes," I punched the air that I was still falling through, "it worked." I looked down at the sword in my hand, that glowing sword, that miraculous, glowing sword. Holding it close, I murmured, "Thank you, thank you."

"A-Alex, where are we?" I looked to my right and could make out Charles. Oh great, not him.

Looking back down at the sword I said, "You could have left him behind, you know." Charles stayed quiet. I looked back over to see if he was ok, and saw that he was staring intently at something below us, something that was casting light on his frightened features. I looked down as well. We were all falling toward a rapidly growing spot of light. Faster than I could look back at good ole Charley, the light enveloped us. Then next thing I knew, we appeared in a well lit, stone ante-chamber of some kind of temple.

The ceiling was a mixture of arches and domes. All around us, oil fueled fires burned in large dishes held on high stands that sparkled in the fire-light. The floor was made of one large slab of marble or some other smooth stone. The pillars were made of the same stuff as the floor. The walls and ceiling were covered with great scenes of battle, between individuals and between armies.

"Where are we?" asked Charles.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Not where I wanted to be." I walked forward, further into the depths of this immense temple. The inner chamber of the temple held a single stone altar, bathed in a single beam of light shining down from the ceiling. The rest of the room was dark, in contrast to the ante-chamber.

The way the light was shining, it appeared as if a carpet of light reached into the depths of the inner chamber. It reached right up to the base of the stone altar, which bathed itself not in the golden fire light of the ante-chamber, but in cold, white moon light from above.

I looked down at the sword in my hand, which continued to glow in its purple brilliance. Why didn't it work like I wanted it to?

"You who lack the right of the pact," echoed a larger than life, booming voice from within the inner chamber. "For what reason do you attempt to wield the Eternal Sword?" From out of the shadows a large man appeared. At least, I though he was a man. Upon closer inspection, I saw four arms, no clothes, a ring of outward pointed blades floating around his waist, and behind him wildly arrayed hair.

"Wh-who are you?" I asked.

"I am Origin, strongest of this world's spirits, and forger of the Eternal Sword," said the four armed man. He gestured around him with one of his arms. "This is the temple in which I will reside until this world's destruction in the coming struggle."

"Whoa!" came a shout from behind me. I turned and saw Charles slowly approaching. His mouth seemed to be dragging the ground. I simply ignored him and his following ranting.

"For what reason do you attempt to wield the Eternal Sword?" Origin asked again. He had crossed his arms, well, only his top pair. The bottom pair were resting on the stone altar.

"Is that what this sword is called?" I asked, holding the blade in front of me. The soft purple light coming off of the sword pulsed slowly, as if it were emulating a heartbeat. Finally I lowered the blade and looked back at Origin. "I'm trying to save my friends," I said. "This sword took us all to someplace else, and more recently it brought me and Lloyd here," I raised the sleeping Lloyd in my left arm, "back to my home. I just want to get Lloyd back with his parents, find my friends, and go home."

Origin looked down at Lloyd in my arms, and then he closed his eyes. After he didn't respond for a while, I thought he had fallen asleep. So while Origin was doing his thing, I looked for Charles and found him behind me against the wall.

"So," he said, "how are you going to get us home? This is your fault too, you know." I was about to say something back, something really witty and smart, but Lloyd decided to wake up. Right, he wakes up now, after all the excitement.

I shushed Lloyd's complaining, which wasn't all that bad compared to the wailing the nursery put out. I glanced at Charles, he was glaring again, so I turned my attention back to Lloyd. After a good bit, I was able to get him giggling. It might have had something to do with the Kratos faces I was making.

"I've decided," boomed Origin. Slightly shaken, I turned and looked back up at the four armed man… creature… thing. "I will invest in you the hopes of your planet's future. You, who lack the right of the pact, come forth and receive it." Origin held out his hand upper-right most hand and motioned for me to approach with his pointer finger. The closer I got, the more eyes I felt staring holes into my back.

When I reached the altar, which was about as high as my shoulders, Origin motioned to the side of the altar and said, "Place Lloyd on the altar." Origin didn't allow me to protest. It was as if he read my mind because he then said, "He will not be harmed. After you place Lloyd on the altar, I want you to drive the Eternal Sword into this hold." Origin pointed at a hole in the center of the alter.

Once I had put Lloyd down, I reached as far as I could and sunk the glowing sword into the hole as directed. When I felt the sword bottom out in the hole, origin grabbed my hand faster than greased lightning and held it around the hilt. The alter started to glow, but that was farthest from my mind because the hilt had suddenly become white hot. I tried to pull my hand away from it, but Origin held my hand steadfast.

"Origin, sto-"

Origin suddenly pulled my hand from the hilt and slid it down the blade.

"Ahhhh!" I screamed. I thought my hand was going to be cut in half, it sure felt that way.

Once my palm was wet with the crimson life fluid leaking profusely from a long gash across the center of my hand, Origin once again wrapped my hand around the glowing white hilt of the Eternal Sword. This time my entire being lit up with fire. I felt the fire in my eyes, my nose, my ears, my hair, and even my tounge. The pain coursed through my very soul, igniting any and all parts of it until I felt completely numb, but still the pain remained.

Numbly I felt Charles grab my shoulders and tug on me, but it was no use. Gradually the pain receded, but I could still feel the pain, if only in memory. The moment Origin's hand let go of mine, I was cradling my burned hand against my stomach.

"What did you do that for?" I shouted. Charles was knocked flat on the floor. I wonder how he got like that.

"It was necessary," Origin said. "Now that you bear the right of the pact, I must test your worthiness to determine if I shall allow you to wield the Eternal Sword." He reached behind him and pulled four massive swords out of nowhere. Oh god, I have to fight him. Now? I can barely move after what he just did to me. "Come, we fight!" Origin shouted. Oh, this is not my day.

* * *

Wooo, what trouble is he in now...

Inri: "Wow, you torture poor Alex."

Well, that's all part of being the Hero in any story, suffering, suffering, suffering, and then success.

Pit: "Still... ouch..."

Yes, that did look like it hurt...

So what did you readers think? Good or bad? And let me respond again to the anonymous reviewer 'me-will-no-tell', no this isn't a self-insert. It's just in first person, that's all. Ok, and now I ask you dear readers to review. Thanks for reading.


	7. Chapter 7

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

"Come," said Origin, slicing the air in front of him. "We fight." I watched Origin float into the air, fly over the altar upon which Lloyd was now sleeping, and then down to the ground on the other side. The long, scimitar like swords made soft whirring noises as Origin swung each blade every now and again. The ring of outward pointed blades floating around Origin's mid-sections was now rotating slowly. 

"Origin," I said while backing away, "I-I-I…" Suddenly my tongue stopped working, and my mouth wired itself shut of its own accord. I tried to open my mouth, but it was as if the muscles used to do so were gone. A sudden weight in my left hand made me look down. I found myself holding an intricately carved wooden sword.

"Fight me, Alex Enstryker," Origin shouted. He lunged forward, criss-crossing his top pair of blades and slicing outward. On instinct I jumped backwards, watching the air centimeters in front of me where I was standing seconds before get sliced to ribbons by Origin's massive swords. I have to fight this killing machine with a wooden sword?

With the hairs on the back of my neck tingling, I jumped back again just seconds before all four of Origin's swords slammed into the marble floor. Chips of marble flew into the air. I threw my hands up to shield my face from the maelstrom of razor sharp debris exploding in front of me. I felt the damnable chips lodge themselves in my arms and legs. When I lowered my arms, I saw Origin still with his swords blades embedded in the floor and the wooden sword I was holding, it had turned into a pincushion like my arms. Blood seeped from each of the numerous cuts and holes the attack had created.

Slowly Origin stood back up, dislodging his blades as he did so. As if in slow motion, he swung one of his blades at me. I brought up the remains of the wooden sword in my hand to block the strike and heard the distinctive chopping sound wood makes when cleaved straight through. I stared at the remains of this sad excuse of a wooden sword.

"This is not happening," I whimpered. I looked back up at Origin in time to see him swing again. I hissed through my teeth as I felt the viper kiss of steel cut across my chest. I fell backwards after that strike, sliding across the marble floor for a few feet. I don't want to get up and keep fighting. When I tried to move, the blood covering my arms and legs made the floor slippery. I tried once more to get up, but I was exhausted, and the slippery blood underneath me wasn't helping.

'So, this is it,' I thought. 'I wish… I could have… seen Marty and… and Colin one more time.' I closed my eyes and felt the dark abyss slowly close in around me. I lay there, waiting for Origin to end this, but nothing happened. Opening my eyes again I saw the idiot standing between me and Origin with his arms outstretched.

"No one defeats the Enstiker but me!" Charles shouted. He picked up the very short end of the wooden sword and held it in front of him. "He stole my title, and until I defeat him, no one will!" So… that's why he was defending me. Of all the stuck up, no good…

"Do not interfere in the test," said Origin. Quick as a flash, faster than my eyes could follow, Origin had kicked Charles in the gut and sent him flying out the doorway into the ante-chamber. I craned my neck backwards and watched him slide to a halt, at which point he stayed down. A good lot of help he was. I turned my head back to face Origin. What was he waiting for? Why was he just standing still and staring down at me.

"I can see now that you are not yet ready to wield the power that has been vested in you," he said at length. "For this reason, I will banish you from your home until such a time that you can defeat all of the Elemental Spirits and claim the Eternal Sword on your own. You, who carry the hopes and dreams of this planet on your shoulders, what path will you choose?"

"Wait," I shouted. "Banish me? Hopes and dreams? What do you mean?" Oh, great, now my mouth works. I felt energy rush through me and my body stood up on its own. When I was standing I looked down and found all my wounds healed. "Wha-? How?" I stammered.

"I will now send you on your way," Origin continued. "If you must, seek council from those who have already saved you're world from destruction." Origin raise his hands, all four of them, and he flashed out of existence in an explosion of light. I glanced nervously around, just to be sure he didn't reappear and kick me in the back. Like Kratos said, keep your eyes on the enemy.

By this time Charles had gotten up and limped back into the main chamber. He didn't look so good. He glared at me, quite clearly trying to convey his displeasure with my performance. But then again, he was a jerk anyway, so who cares. What Origin had said finally sank in. If he sent me on while I wasn't holding Lloyd, then he would be left here.

I quickly made my way to the altar. After carefully scooping up Lloyd, I barely had enough time to blink before I was standing in the middle of a sand dune. I blinked once, and then looked around, but the only other person within sight was Lloyd. Charles, that temple, everything was gone, replaced by a freezing cold desert in the middle of the night. So instead of killing me outright, Origin wants me to die from exposure, awesome!

I briskly rubbed the arm that I held Lloyd in, while watching what I could see of my breathe rise into the air and shivering fiercely. When the foggy whiteness of my breath dissipated into the cold night sky, I was treated to the most spectacular view I've ever seen. I've never seen so many stars before in my life. The black sky was vast, pin-points of light were literally everywhere I looked. Back at home, maybe one or two stars were visible, but now I could see millions upon millions. Oh yeah… I almost forgot about home.

What did Origin mean when he said I was banished from my home? And the only way to get back is to defeat all of the Elemental Spirits. What in the seven underworlds are those? I don't know exactly what Origin meant, but I'm stuck here until I figure it out, regardless.

"Great," I said sarcastically, "this is just so_o_o_o_ _awesome_. I'm in the middle of a damn freezing cold desert, I just had my ass handed to me by some four-armed freak, I lost the Eternal Sword or whatever it was, I don't know where I am…" and so on. I sullenly trudged forward, into the icy depths of this oversized sandbox. This desert had to end somewhere, after all.

I didn't notice it at first, but now that I looked, I could see the sky gradually getting brighter. I could see a pale light spreading across the sky like a thin, white sheet. I followed the pale light to its source off to my right. I've never seen a sunrise before. It was more spectacular than all of the stars, the way that the sun seemed to spill onto the land. The pale orb's bright beams of light stretched across the sky and land alike, touching all that was and granting much sought warmth.

Of course several hours later, I wasn't so awe struck. I was, in fact, sweating like a pig, and I probably smelled like one too. Lloyd wasn't too happy either, he kept squirming and complaining. I tried to keep him shaded under my shadow by leaning over him, but the sun had a way of shedding its light around me and hitting him anyway.

"Stupid sword," I mumbled. The sand dune in front of me moved, or did I move. I don't know, I'm too hot, and now I feel dizzy. "Dumb Origin," I continued to mumble.

Before I knew what happened, I was tumbling down a sand embankment. I managed to keep Lloyd from flying out of my grasp and landed in a sitting position with my legs outstretched in front of me. Lloyd was wailing loudly now, a fact which grated on my ears as each cry reached pitches of sound an opera singer would envy. If this sand were glass, it would shatter.

I tried shushing Lloyd, but nothing I did had any effect. In the end, Lloyd only cried harder than he was before. I clenched my hand, frustration boiling over inside of me. I pounded the sand next to me several times. I couldn't stop the hot tears from stinging my face. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to go on a boring museum trip, go home, and have a normal life. These things don't happen to people. So then why? Why was this happening to me?

After creating a prodigious sand crater, which filled in shortly there after, I sat there and cried with Lloyd. And after a while, even though it didn't hurt any less, I was able to calm my raging emotions long enough to stand back up and move on. Lloyd also quieted down eventually, though he was more vocal about his frustrations than I was.

* * *

Many hours later…

* * *

I don't know how long it was, or how far I had traveled. But by the time I stumbled through the gates of a small town, I was completely drained of energy. Every time I swallowed, my tongue would scrape against the roof of my mouth like sand paper against a tender open wound. My mouth felt like it had been sawed off with a piece of paper, which didn't lend itself well to talking to the people who surrounded me. My whole body felt like it was being held together with papier-mâché. 

Lloyd didn't look much better. In fact he had stopped crying and remained silent almost at the same time I had spotted this place. His skin was bright red, and even though I felt like I was burning up in the heat of the desert, I could feel even more heat coming from Lloyd.

Before I could get five feet into the town I collapsed. The world whirled around me, flashes of people and other things mingled with bites of concerned murmurs and excited shouting. Gradually all of that faded to black and I was finally allowed to slip into the peaceful solitude of unconsciousness.

* * *

I must be dreaming. Marty is sitting next to me. I couldn't hear her, but I could tell that she was worried. Why was she worried? Doesn't she know that worrying makes her look sad? Her pink outfit was kind of ugly, but then I don't think she was upset because of that. I know! I can make her feel better if I find Colin. But where is Colin? Maybe I should ask Marty if she knows. 

"Hey Marty," I said. But she didn't answer. She continued to look down at me worried. "Maaarty…" I said again. No response. The next time I tried shouting, "Marty, Marty, Marty, Marty!" Finally she looked me straight in the eyes, but didn't respond to my prodding. She just looked distraught, even more than before. I don't like this dream anymore, I wanna wake up.

I remained locked in place though. I'm not so sure I'm dreaming anymore. A new face replaced Marty's, this one was much older. She had silver locks of hair, concern etched on a face that framed expressive blue eyes, and a grimly set jaw. Her eyes closed and her brow wrinkled in concentration. I watched her for what seemed like ages when suddenly I could hear.

"-e okay, Professor?" That was Marty. It was easy to tell that it was her, and I never thought I would be so glad to hear her voice. Then someone else said something.

"Shh," the other person said, "let her concentrate." It sounded like a kid my age. I wanted to turn my head to look, but I couldn't move. And there was a tingling sensation building in my toes and fingertips. What was this Professor doing to me?

The pins and needles feeling continued to grow until it encompassed my right leg up to the middle of my thigh, my entire left leg, my right hand, my left arm, and half my torso. I don't know what she was doing, but the intensity of the feeling was starting to hurt. Once the tingling had reached the point where I could just barely stand it, the older woman opened her eyes in defeat.

"That's all I can do," she said sadly. "His body is rejecting the spell." The tingling quickly died until it completely disappeared.

"Does that mean…" Marty left her sentence hanging, but from the look on this Professor's face, I knew the answer wasn't a good one.

"I'm sorry," the Professor said and turned away. Marty was crying. Does that mean, then, I'm going to die. What happened to me now?

"Raine!" shouted the other voice from before. "You have to do something! We can't just let him die, not after what Martel told us."

"Don't you think I tried Genis," said the professor, exhaustion evident in her voice. Hmm, so this Professor's name is Raine. And the other person's name is Genis. Very weird names… "I remember quite well what Martel told us," Raine said, "but I'm afraid that if I attempt to heal him any more, his body will literally fall apart."

"You don't know for sure," argued Genis. "You know as well as I do that it could have the opposite effect." A long silence ensued, broken only by Marty who was sobbing into my shirt. Why do girls cry so much?

"Fine, Genis, fine," Raine said eventually. "But I'm going to need the remaining pieces of the unicorn horn and a stalk of the mana leaf herb. Get them for me. They're in the second pocket to the left."

"I'm on it," Genis replied in the distance.

Raine sighed as Marty lifted her hope filled face up. "I wish Sheena was here," she said before she pulled out a long staff with a bluish purple crystal embedded in the top. "It would make it easier if we had Gnome, Efreet, Undine, and Sylph here."

"How would that help Professor?" Marty asked.

"Because dear, those are the four spirits that govern the mana that composes the human body," Raine said. The gem on the end of her staff started to glow. "If they were here," Raine continued, "it would probably all but guarantee the success of the spell. With what we have with us, your friend only has a 50 percent chance of survival."

Marty bit her lip for a moment and then looked down at me. "Thank you, Professor," she said. "Thank you for trying to save him."

Genis walked up and said, "Thank her after he wakes up." Marty looked at Raine, hopeful once again. "Here Raine," said Genis, handing Raine what looked like a piece of chalk, a small blue marble mounted on a silver bracelet, and a green and leafy stalk. "I even found an extra Exsphere if we need it," added Genis.

"Thank you, Genis," Raine said, laying the leafy stalk and piece of chalk on my chest while setting the bracelet to the side. Genis was finally in my range of vision. He looked just like Raine, except he was younger of course, and he wore a blue outfit instead of the orange-brown that Raine wore. "Let's hope this works," Raine said. Marty closed her eyes and clasped her hands tightly together.

Raine closed her eyes and the gem on the end of the staff lit up. I did a double take because I swear I saw bits of purple light swirling around the crystal. But when I looked closer, it wasn't there. Genis was now next to Marty, leaning over me, watching intently.

The air suddenly became thick, voices echoed all around me, though I didn't know where they were coming from as it was only the four of us in the room. The tingling from before came back with a vengeance, this time my entire body felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly with long, white-hot pokers. I tried to scream out, but the only thing that came out was a slight gasp for air. Marty opened her tear streaked, red eyes and watched me start writhing on the floor.

"It's working Raine!" shouted Genis. "Keep it up." He reached over and picked up the silver bracelet. After that he watched me intently, he was anticipating something the way he sat, like he was a cat ready to strike.

The voices surrounding me started to increase in pitch. I felt like the voices were screaming now, yelling things that I couldn't understand as loudly as they could. I felt hand's grabbing me without the fleshy counterpart there to back it up. The world around me swam in a vision of colors. From beyond the voices, a new one appeared. At first the others were drowning it out, but this new voice quickly became louder than the rest.

"Roots of creation," said the echoing voice, "essence of the afterlife, bring back this soul from Purgatory!" I screamed out as all the voices surrounding me became so loud that I felt my head splitting in two. And then the intruding voice shouted one word above the rancorous din, "Resurrection!"

The world around me coalesced into the room I was lying in, only I wasn't lying down anymore. I was floating in the air above a large blue circle of wispy smoke and air. I felt a huge pain coming from my chest and the world around me started to fade again.

"Quick, Genis" Raine shouted while keeping her arms outstretched toward me with her eyes closed. "Attach the Exsphere now!" Almost as soon as she finished shouting, someone grabbed my wrist. Their grip was replaced by a ring of fire that quickly spread throughout my whole body. Then, as quick as a flash, I fell to the floor panting.

The blue mist was gone, as well as the feeling of hands grasping onto me without their fleshy counterparts. Now I was being hugged, too tightly as always, by Marty while trying to catch my breath. Raine didn't look too much better than I did. She was leaning heavily against the wall with one shoulder while holding onto her staff for dear life. Her breathe was ragged and sweat was pouring off of her silver-hair plastered face.

"Th-thank you," I rasped. Raine looked at me, swallowed, and nodded. Marty took this opportunity to hug me even tighter.

"Alex, I thought you were going to die," she wailed. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Especially not after what happened in the museum with that… that… that monster." Marty pulled back and trickles of scorn moved into her relief. "Don't you ever do that to me again! Do you hear me Alex!" Without waiting for an answer, she pulled me back into a death hug.

"Marty…" I rasped, "Marty I need to breathe." Genis then stepped in and pulled Marty off of me. "I'm… (gasp) sorry Marty… (gasp) I didn't mean to… (gasp) make you worry." She nodded and hugged me again, though this time I could breathe properly.

"Now that your friend is revived Martel, I think it's time that you told us the rest of the story," said Genis. Raine, who had since recovered, now stood next to Genis, both with their arms crossed. "And this time, don't lie, we want the whole truth. Why is this mission you're on so important, and what is the great evil that's going to destroy the world?"

Martel let go of me and sighed. Wait… Marty's on a quest too? She looked at me with a serious expression on her face. "Alex you have to swear that what you're about to hear won't be uttered past your lips." She stared at me hard. "Do you?" she shouted. I jumped and then nodded.

"Okay," Marty said. She closed her eyes for a moment while letting her hands rest in her lap as she kneeled. "I'm the last descendent of a long line of guardians," she said soberly. "We were appointed to watch over the world so that Magic and Magi-technology would never again come about to ruin the world once more." She looked at me and said, "That monster we encountered in the museum was but a weakling compared to the horrors that walked the Earth during the last War of Ages." A… weakling? But then… what's going on?

* * *

So, some things are revealed, but what's really going on? Why is there a Guardian in the future and why is it Marty? How does Marty know about Magic and Magi-technology? These are all really good questions... but...

**Inri**: "We're not gonna tell."

**Pit**: _Grumbling_. "I hate you, both of you."

**Inri**: "Too bad, Pit, too bad. Maybe if you're good, we'll be nice and let you introduce the next chapter..."

**Pit**: "Really?"

**Inri**: "No."

**Pit**: "Grumble, grumble, grumble..."

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks again for reading and please review.


	8. ToBR

_**Theater of Bound Ridiculous**_

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

A/N: I just wanted to point out that his installment will include random acts of violence and humor all tied together with a single setting. I wanted to break out of my mold and try something new for one chapter. The story will continue next chapter. AND, I was influenced by freakyanimegal456's ACFC chapters in her Grandkid story, which was just completed. Now we wait on the sequel…

I also want to point out that I am not blindly copying the ACFC chapters. No, I want to do this comedic relief chapter for my story in my own way, though I got the idea for a comedic relief story from freaky. So instead, of crickets, I have my muses and random acts of violence. This chapter is supposed to be funny… I hope I succeed in making it so.

* * *

A small boy walks onto the darkened stage, a single overhead spot light following him until he sits down on a wooden stool in the middle of the stage. He's dressed casually, sporting a baggy blue pair of cargo-shorts and a light brown t-shirt with an image from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker's opening movie on it (I don't own the Legend of Zelda). His hair is black, and from the looks of it, forced into a tame and clean cut look with a massive amount of hair gel. 

"Yo," says the boy. He shifts uncomfortably on the stool. "My name is Pit. I'm usually reserved as the muse for the author. But for some reason, instead of the new Symphonian Adventure chapter that was scheduled to come out, I was told to come out here and perform for you tonight." Pit coughs into his hand, shifting nervously back and forth on the stool. Murmurs rose from the audience, though nothing could be made out clearly. Then, suddenly, someone from the back of the theatre stands up and violently shakes her fist.

"WHERE'S the next chapter!" shouts the crazed woman as she pumps her fist in the air. "I want more Kratos! NOW!" Another person stands up, this one a man, in the middle of the audience.

"Yeah!" shouts the man. "And what happened to Lloyd?"

"And I wanna torture Yuan!" shouts another.

"I want to kill Colette!"

"I wan' ta beat tha snot out uv Cha'ley!"

More and more of the audience members stand up and start chanting, "Chapter now! Chapter now!"

Pit turns and yells at someone back stage. "I told you they wouldn't buy it!"

"Damn, the chapter's not ready yet!" And after a few more seconds of chanting from the audience the backstage voice relents. "Give them what they want!" a girl shouted. "Give them, 'Dun dun dun' (Great sound effects… right?), "the Theater of Bound Ridiculous!"

Lightning splits the suddenly dark, cloudy, and rainy outside sky. Palpable peals of thunder rip through the air. All the shouting members of the audience get real quite, so quiet a cricket can be heard. (And no, it isn't Fred the cricket from freakyanimegal456's story, though if she wishes, I can put him in the next Theater of Bound Ridiculous).

"What?" Pit looks at the audience and then back at the person back stage.

"You heard me Pit!" Pit jumped and cringed. "Do it now or else I'll beat you with the frying pan again!" Cringing, Pit nods and subconsciously rubs his shoulder in imagined pain.

"Okay! You asked for it, you get it! Ladies and gentlemen, the Theater of Bound Ridiculous!" Lighting and thunder again made their primal rage known and caused Pit to leap into the air and scream like a little girl on her birthday.

* * *

The curtain closes and several seconds later opens again. It held a scene that anyone who played Tales of Symphonia would recognize as Meltokio. It was the area directly in front of the Zelos' mansion.

* * *

A bunny-rabbit. A cute, white furred, middle aged bunny-rabbit with long floppy ears. It hops along the road toward Zelos, who stands with his back to the rabbit while he faces his 'hunnies'. Suddenly, one of the skanky women fawning over Zelos points and screams at the cute and most definitely innocent bunny. 

"Ww-what is that thing?" Zelos turns around to see what is occupying the floozies' attention besides himself.

"Oh, that," he said, waving it off nonchalantly. "That's just my guard rabbit."

"Your guard… rabbit?"

"Yep, yep. He guards my fabulous bod from those who want to steal it and my hunnies. He also makes coffee. Not a bad deal for 32 Gald a month." The girls all stared at Zelos incredulously. Zelos turned to the rabbit. "Hey rabbit, any attacks recently?" The pure white bunny rabbit hops off toward an alley, Zelos and his groupies following right on his fuzzy, white, cotton tail.

In the alley, they find four dead bodies. All of their arms and legs are gnawed off and their heads are stacked like a pyramid. Flies buzz around the corpses that have many, many cuts and wounds from, apparently, bunny teeth.

"See," Zelos points at the death before them. "All these guys tried to steal my fabulous bod, and my guard rabbit took care of them.

"Are you the Chosen of Mana?" The group turned around to face a nameless assassin wearing a long, dark cloak.

"Don't you assassins ever get tired of wearing the same types of clothes," Zelos asked.

Before the man could say anything, the guard rabbit was at his throat. In seconds the bunny had gnawed a hole in the artery on his neck and blood started to squirt into the air. The assassin screamed bloody murder and then his head fell off as the rabbit chewed through the last of his neck. Once the man was dead and in pieces, the rabbit set a mug of freshly brewed coffee on the ground and started to lap at it.

"See, a guard Rabbit that makes coffee," Zelos laughed.

Suddenly a man on a horse, (I don't own anything Monty Python) rides by and throws something at the rabbit, which isn't so white now with blood stains all over it. The horse riding man screams "Holy Hand Grenade!" before he disappears in a puff of smoke. The object that the horse rider threw hit the rabbit and exploded. Tufts of fur fall from the sky in a snow storm of dead, man-eating rabbit parts.

Zelos sighed dejectedly. Though his hunnies tried to cheer him up, there wasn't anything they could do.

"Uh! Master Zelos, what's wrong with you! It was only a silly rabbit." Zelos shook his head in sorrow.

"Now where am I going to get coffee?"

* * *

The curtains close and, seconds later, open once more. Now the stage is empty except for a little girl, who wore a long, ankle length, white dress. She's crossed her arms and started taps her foot while her eye brow twitches. 

"That moron had better have a good reason for being late." Suddenly Pit scrambles onto the stage. "You! Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry Inri, but that stupid bunny really could kill people. He nearly chewed my arm off." Pit rubs a bandaged right forearm.

"Well that's a shame." Before Pit could retaliate Inri continued. "Now, please introduce the next scene and the characters in it, like you were SUPPOSED to the last time!"

Pit sullenly trudged to the front of the stage and faced the audience. "Okay," he said _enthusiastically,_ "next up we have a hypothetical scene where Kratos gets into a fight with the Easter Bunny. He gets Lloyd to help him, but Colette and Genis have teamed with the bunny. Let's get on with it already."

* * *

The curtain closes and seconds later opens. The scene now before the audience is in the middle of a green field. Down the dirt road walks Kratos in his standard mercenary purple. Suddenly, out pops a man sized rabbit holding a basket full of eggs. 

"Halt," says Kratos, "Who- what are you?"

"I can't believe what those kids did to me, ugh." Then the rabbit notices Kratos. "Oh, it's you Kratos."

Kratos pulls out the Flamberg. "How do you know who I am?"

"What are you talking about, Kratos? It's m-Whoa! Stop swinging that sword at me!" Kratos again swings his sword at the oversized rabbit.

"I asked you a question, rabbit. I expect an answer." The rabbit turns and high tails it to the slightly distant village of Iselia. Kratos sighs, takes out his wings, and flies to the village. When he gets there he looks up, checks the position of the sun, and then walks into the village store to buy something to eat. When he walks back out of the store, the rabbit is just hopping through the entrance. The guards are curiously no where to be found.

The bunny stops and looks around. "Good, I lost Kratos." The rabbit starts pulling on his furry skin. "How am I-"

"So we meet again." Kratos walks up to the bunny, sword drawn. "Now, tell me who and what you are. I'll not ask again."

"Ugh." The bunny slumps over in defeat.

"Oh My Goddess!" Everyone looks to the entrance, as a crowd had gathered by now, and there stands Lloyd. "What in the name of Origin is that?" the swordsman shrieks.

"It appears to be a walking, talking, man sized rabbit, Lloyd," replies Kratos, "and I was just going to have the creature explain itself."

"Lloyd, Kratos, listen to me!" Lloyd jumps and points at the rabbit.

"It knows our names!"

"I am aware of that Lloyd, let the talking rabbit continue." The crowd of people who stand around the large rabbit all turn their eyes to the creature.

"Okay, listen closely, I am-"

"Noooooo!" Genis and Colette roughly push Lloyd aside as they run and stand next to the large rabbit, clutching his furry arms. "No, Easter Bunny, don't reveal your secret identity!" they cry in unison. "It would ruin our plans!"

"I see," says Kratos menacingly. "So you plan to take over the world. And I thought Mithos was the last of such individuals." Kratos holds the Flamberg at eye level. "Prepare to meet your fate."

"I can't believe you brainwashed my friends into helping you undo all that we have strived for," Lloyd shouts at the rabbit. He unsheathes his swords and brandishes them against the man-rabbit. "A world free of oppression and discrimination."

"But- No! Stop! Get these two off of me! You don't understand!" But it was useless. Kratos and Lloyd leap at the rabbit, knocking Genis and Colette off to the sidelines. The villagers hold Colette and Genis down as Lloyd and Kratos fight the bunny in unison. Two Double Demon Fangs and a Falcon Crest later, the Easter Bunny lays on the ground, defeated.

"Noooo!" cry Genis and Colette, large alligator tears falling from their faces to the dirty road. Raine suddenly appears and, after pushing her way through the crowd, starts consoling Genis. Alex and Marty push through not long after, Marty holding Baby Lloyd, and the two of them console Colette.

"What's wrong Genis?" Raine asks.

"Kratos and Lloyd messed everything up," he sobs, "They fought the Easter Bunny and now the costume is all messed up and there isn't anyone who can play the part." Lloyd and Kratos looked at each other and then down at the rabbit.

"It appears that it was indeed a man we fought," Kratos says as he leans down over the unconscious man.

"I wonder who it is." Lloyd reaches down and tugs the head piece of the costume off. There wasn't a sound in the village.

Lloyd starts snickering, followed by the rest of those present. Even Kratos has a hard time keeping a straight face. Baby Lloyd, too young to know what was going on, giggles along side everyone else. Lloyd, after laughing for a good ten to fifteen minutes, manages to stand up without falling back over.

"You're not going to let him live this down, are you Kratos?" Kratos looks down at Yuan in the bunny suit and the back at Lloyd.

"Not on his life, now that I've got the dirt." Lloyd looks at Kratos in confusion until the older man pulls out a Magi-technology camera and snapps a few hundred photos. Kratos was grinning ear to ear the entire time.

* * *

The curtain closes and then opens again to reveal Inri standing a cowering Pit, frying pan held high in her hand. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Inri looks up and sees the audience. Laughing nervously, she tosses the frying pan behind her head, off stage. Someone back there yells out in pain when it hits them in the noggin.

"Okay folks, there's just one more show for tonight. I hope you've enjoyed it so far and without further ado, here is the last-" Vidar suddenly bounds onto the stage.

"Everyone must leave immediately," he shouts.

"Hey," Inri shouts back, "just what the hell do you think you're doing? This is my show, get out of here." Vidar pouted and made to leave, but not before Pit leaped up and grabbed one of his leather straps.

"Hey, wait!" Vidar stops and turns around. "What's so important that everyone has to leave?" pit asks.

"Well," Vidar starts reluctantly.

"Come on," spat Inri, "out with it."

"Okay, I was in the upstairs bathroom and-"

"You mean the one they just got done fixing?" Pit asks.

"Yeah, that one, the one with the sign on it that says 'This toilet has weak plumbing'. Anyway I was… err… checking the plumbing and when I went to flush, nothing happened. So I flushed again and it started going down and then stopped and made guttural noises. After several more flushes it sounded and looked like it was gong to explode. So I ran away and told everyone that I passed about it."

"Okay, okay, wait, wait." Inri holds a hand up in front of Vidar and stops his speech. "First, why did you keep flushing the toilet if it wasn't doing what it was supposed to, and second, why didn't you call a plumber instead of running through the theater screaming at everyone to get out."

There was a sudden wrenching sound above the theater, like metal tearing and water whooshing. It sounded like a damn breaking. "OH MY GOD! Owwwwiiiiieeee!"

"Did that sound like Zelos to anyone else?" Pit asks. A trap door in the ceiling pops open, sending gallons of water pouring onto the stage. After the flow dies down, Zelos drops to the stage, completely drenched, and clutching his crotch. His pants don't look that well buckled on either.

"Zelos," Inri asks tentatively, "did you, by chance, attempt to use the upstairs bathroom?" Zelos, whose eyes were bugging out of his head, manages to nod before he cringes again.

The curtain slowly closes, probably in consolation of Zelos.

* * *

And there you have it. That's the end of this story deviance. I hope you enjoyed this installment of the Theater of Bound Ridiculous. I plan on doing this in the future, cause I have more funnyness that I've yet to get out of me. 

**Inri**: "But what about Alex, Marty, Colin, Baby Lloyd, and ole Charley?"

**Pit**: "Yeah! And what did Inri's new riddle mean?"

**Inri**: "No Pit! Don't say that!"

**Pit**: "Why don't you want me to say, 'the answer is before there was ever a problem' for?"

**Inri**: Smacks her face in frustration. "Ugh. Never mind?"

**Pit**: "No really, what does it mean? Tell me!"

Okay… Anyway, though it may have seemed that this was a distraction, I needed to get out of the habit of writing only one kind of way, helps me write better in the end. And besides, this story was getting too serious, so I wanted to make people laugh. And thus I thought, why not have a ridiculous chapter like freakyanimegal456 did? And here you have it. I did my best not to plagiarize, hence all the references to freakyanimegal456. So I hope it's ok.

Review if you feel like, and if you do, it is much appreciated. And if freakyanimegal456 is reading this, I'd be interested very much to know what she thinks about this. Was it ok to use your ACFC chapter as an inspiration? I'm sorry if you don't think so… But too late now. And, taking another lead from freaky, if you, the reader, wish to be in one of the future Theater's of Bound Ridiculous, then request in a review what you want to do. Eitherway I'm going to write them.

And I don't know if you noticed, but I kinda had an Easter theme going here.

As always, thanks for reading.


	9. Chapter 8

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

Since it's been so long since I've updated this story, I thought it deserved a recap: Alex had just barely survived the Triet desert. He wakes to find himself dead. He is revived by the master healer Raine Sage and her brother Genis Sage. Marty Dhaos was there as well. After Alex was revived, Marty revealed that she was the last descendant in the long line of Mana Guardians. And now we rejoin our misplaced hero…

* * *

"Okay," I said. All this talk about Mana and guardians was confusing me. I stood up and, after quickly deciding that was a bad idea, sat back down. I guess being brought back to life has some side effects. I'm dizzy now. "Whoa… that wasn't fun." 

Raine moved over to me and felt my forehead. "Don't move for a few hours, you still have to recover most of your strength." I nodded and regretted doing so almost immediately.

Holding my head, which felt like it was being chopped in half by a sloppy lumberjack, I said, "Right. Um, Marty could you explain what you were talking about in greater detail. It's got to be half the reason my head is spinning right now."

Marty pursed her lips and glared sourly at me. "You never were that good in school were you. Well, at least you weren't as bad as Colin." Sighing she stood up and moved to sit on a chair. "I told you, I'm the Mana Guardian. The last one actually. Our family was appointed-"

I held up my hand and Marty paused, looking annoyed. "Umm… I just wanted… to know who appointed you."

Flustered and agitated Marty threw her hands into the air. "I don't know! I just know what my guardians told me. And they told me that a long time ago, a very, very long time ago; Mana was used almost every day for the most mundane of thing, as V-tech is used now, or rather, will be in the future. The thing is, unlike V-tech, there is a limit to how much Mana can be used. So my mission is to prevent any use of Mana outside of nature itself." I raised my hand again, though a bit more reluctantly. I didn't want to have my head bitten off. Marty huffed and folded her arms, waiting patiently for my expected question.

I took a deep breathe and looked around the room slowly, I didn't want another headache. "So let me get this straight. We aren't on some other world called Sylvarant. This is our home, just very far in the past. And instead of V-tech, they use something called Mana. And you've been appointed by God knows who to stop the use of Mana by anything other than nature." I'm now sure that it is this information that is making my head spin.

"That certainly correlates to our experiences." I everyone turned to Raine as she started pacing back and forth. "Approximately four thousand years ago, there was a great war where something called Magi-technology was used. Magi-technology takes up and converts mana into raw power. It was used so much and devastated the planet so completely that the tree of ever-flowing mana, The Great Kharlan Tree, withered and died."

"It died! You mean they killed their own source of power?" Raine gave me an appraising look. At length she nodded.

"Yes. The most likely scenario is one where one side would rather sacrifice the tree than have the other side using its Mana as well." I nodded and she continued. "It was around that time that the war ended. According to legend and from what the Elven storyteller told us, four heroes appeared and brought the warring nations to peace. But the price had already been paid; the world's Mana was quickly drying up. So Mithos Yggdrasill used the Eternal Sword made for him by Origin to split the world asunder. In this way-"

"So that's where that sword came from." Everyone looked at me. "What?" Their stares were starting to unnerve me.

"You said something?" I looked up at Raine and slowly nodded.

"I was talking about the sword you referred to."

"The Eternal Sword?" Genis asked. I nodded.

"Yes. Before I appeared in the desert with Lloyd, I was in a strange temple of some sort. And it was there that I had my butt handed to me by Origin. He wanted to test me for the right to wield the Eternal Sword." To say that they were surprised would be an understatement. Genis' mouth was hanging open. "I guess Origin didn't like me using the sword to go back and forth between home and Sylvarant."

"Hold up." Marty held her hand up and took a breath. "Are you telling me that the piece of scrap metal you charged at the monster in the museum with was the Eternal Sword of legend? And are you telling me that you actually went home?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I went home." A smile crept over my face. The others looked at me curiously. "I happened to appear in the middle of the VG Championship."

"You did what!" I winced from Marty's screech.

"And I won." Marty was about to jump up and leap at me, but I went on before she could. "They also think we started a fire in the museum." That stopped Marty.

Confused she sat back down on the bed and asked, "What do you mean? That monster started the fire."

"I know, I tried to explain it to the fake detective, but she wouldn't have any of it." Now Marty was even more confused, and Genis and Raine who were listening weren't any wiser.

"What do you mean when you called the detective fake?" Genis asked.

"I meant that it was someone posing as a detective. I knew she wasn't a detective because she seemed far too interested in the missing artifacts than the fire in the museum. Plus, I saw someone wearing a similar trench coat in the museum just before we were attacked by the monster. I think they were the same people."

"Not likely." Now everyone looked at Marty. "She was probably just a fellow henchman… err hench-woman. Raine, Genis. Remember when I said the world was in danger. It was from those people. More likely than not, they were the ones who brought the monster in the museum to life. They have agents in all the levels of government. They have control of the more prosperous sections of the economy. They are a shadowy organization that is trying to resurrect the secrets of the Mana based weapons you called Magi-technology. The worst part is, I don't know why they are doing it either. It was those people that killed my parents." I could tell that this conversation was making Marty uncomfortable and depressed from the way she was fidgeting and how she never looked up while she was speaking.

"I see." Raine, deep in thought and distracted by her own ideas, turned to me. "What happened to the Eternal Sword?"

"I think it is still in Origin's temple. He said that I have to defeat the elemental spirits and claim the sword as my own if I wanted to wield it. Whatever that means." Raine and Genis looked at each other knowingly. "He also said I was banished from home until I do so. Not only that, I still have to get Lloyd back to his parents who are somewhere here on Sylvarant."

"You keep speaking of Lloyd as if you know him." Genis started to walk around the room slowly, keeping his arms crossed. "At first I thought you were talking about Lloyd Irving, but now I'm not so sure. Is that baby's name also Lloyd?"

Great, now my head hurt even more. Why can't anything make sense? "Yes, the baby's name is Lloyd. Are you telling me there are two Lloyds now?" Genis shrugged and so did I. I noted with smug satisfaction that didn't get dizzy when I did so.

"Baby Lloyd was thrown over the cliff in Asgard. I dove after him and that sword, the Eternal Sword, transported us to the future before we died." Marty and Genis were aghast, but Raine was strangely quite.

"Who would throw a baby over a cliff," Marty said apprehensively. I replayed the image in my mind. It was as clear as the moment it happened. That evil, rat faced Desian that shot me. Kratos running at the man while screaming his name. A name burned into my memory. Kvar.

"It was a Desian named Kvar." The room was silent. Genis started shaking his head in disbelief.

"That can't be right. You see, Kvar's-"

"Genis." Genis stopped mid-sentence and looked up at his sister. "Let him finish." After looking back and forth between the two, I shrugged. It wasn't my choice if they believed me.

"You don't happen to have Lloyd here, do you?" I watched Marty stand up and walk to the other side of the room. She came back with a bundle in her arms.

"When you got here, he was almost as bad off as you were." Marty kneeled next to me and held Lloyd out for me to see. "Fortunately, he only needed water and time to recover. One quick First Aid spell and he was good to go."

I smiled when Lloyd looked up at me and giggled. Remembering the faces that Kratos made, I started to make some. After a few minutes the room was filled with laughter and I was finding it hard to keep up a silly face before I started laughing again. That's when it happened.

"Dada!" Lloyd said and giggled some more. I stopped laughing. Lloyd just said his first word. Lloyd just spoke!

"Hey, he just said 'dada'." Genis said through his grin.

"Yeah," I said. This is kinda sad. I bet he misses Kratos and Anna. "That was his first word." The others looked at me and then again at Lloyd before both Raine and Marty started congratulating Lloyd in baby talk. Genis, having more dignity than his sister or Marty, settled with standing smugly with his arms crossed and grinning in spite of himself. "He probably misses Kratos and Anna." Genis and Raine immediately stopped smiling. While the little brother stared at me, Raine looked back down at Lloyd. He just smiled and snuggled into Marty's arms, enjoying the attention.

"What do you mean… err…"

"Alex."

"Alex, what do you mean he misses Kratos and Anna?"

I tilted my head and gave Genis a confused look. "Why wouldn't he miss them? They're his parent."

"But… How… What in the world is going on?" Genis was apparently frustrated. I don't know what's wrong with Kratos and Anna being Lloyd's parents. For some reason though, Genis had issues with it. "That's impossible. Kratos and Anna are Lloyd's parents."

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Yes… no… argh!" Frustrated, Genis threw his hands into the air.

"I think what Genis is trying to say, is that Kratos and Anna are Lloyd Irving's parents." Oh, so that's what Genis is going on about. Well, if that's true then… "And if that's true, and this little one's parents are the same people, then this baby and Lloyd Irving are the same person."

"Raine! That's impossible."

"No it isn't Genis. Think about it. He traveled through time with the Eternal Sword. He could have traveled even farther back in time to a point before Lloyd's mother died. If he did, then it's possible that-"

Suddenly the door burst open. In rushed three people. Two elderly men and a little girl. They each had a variety of worried expressions and they couldn't seem to stop shaking and looking over their shoulders. They were afraid of something and they came here for help.

"You've got to help us," said the older man. He had completely grey hair as compared to the other man, who was only halfway grey. They all wore what looked like homemade clothing and shoes, which I suppose didn't look too bad, but it sure didn't look good either.

"The mean people're comin back," the little girl said. "There are mor'ev 'em dis time." I looked over to Genis when I heard him sigh loudly.

"I'll handle it." Genis stood up and walked out the door, motioning for the three villagers to follow him. I was about to ask, but the mixture of bored and bland looks I received kept me quiet. Whatever was going on outside must not have been that important.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet if you cut out all the times Marty and Raine were telling me not to move. I swear, their kindness is lethal. What I'd give to just be at home having a normal life.

The next morning found me sneaking out of the small, one room inn we were staying at. I didn't want to have to deal with nurse Marty and doctor Raine any time soon. Genis I could live with because he seemed to understand what I was going through. Good thing for me Marty is a heavy sleeper and Raine seems to be as well.

Once at the door I let out a long sigh of relief and quietly let myself outside. The town we were staying is seemed to be on the edge of the desert. Beyond the makeshift border fence I could see grass lands mixed with sand dunes.

I started shivering in the cold morning air. The clothes I was wearing were from Asgard. But the climate in Asgard is a lot warmer and thus the constant wind was also warmer. This place had no wind, but the air was freezing cold. I saw the morning dew as frost on many of the windows.

As I made my way out of the small settlement, I came upon a tree stump and a large stone tablet. Sitting on the tree stump, I read what was written on the tablet. At the top was a picture of a man with wings. Oh, so this is about that Cruxis thing Harley was talking about.

'Hear ye, citizens of Sylvarant. What follows is the account of one who defied the Desians, Cruxis, and reunited the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. With the help of eight companions, he defeated the corrupt leader of the Cruxis and all of the Desian Grand Cardinals. This hero, Lloyd Irving, shall be remembered for all time.'

I was astonished. This is what happened to Lloyd? He not only lost his parents, but he was banished from his home, and after that he went out and saved not one world but two. It's almost a direct reflection of me. I didn't lose my parents, but I don't know who they are either. And more recently… Origin banished me from going home.

After reading the stone tablet, I sat back and considered what I'd just read. Not just Lloyd, but all of them sacrificed everything to end the atrocities carried out by Cruxis. All those terrible thing done in the name of reviving one person. One person who was killed for trying to stop the overuse of Mana.

"Well, hello Mr. Early Riser. And here I thought that I was the only one who got up this early." I jumped and fell off of the stump. "Hahaha! Sorry little man, I didn't think you were so jumpy." After helping me up and brushing me off, all in an abrupt manner, he shook my hand fiercely. "The name's Zelos. Zelos Wilder, the ex-Chosen of Mana."

I stared up at the pink wearing, red haired man who looked more like a high class woman than a man. I'm guessing my silent stupor upset him because he stopped shaking my hand and started grumbling.

"You know what, forget it." As he walked off I could hear him muttering under his breathe. "Some people… just can't please them all."

"Never mind him." I turned around and came face to face with a girl that looked similar to Zelos, only her hair was a lighter shade of red. Kind of like a strawberry blond, only more toward the strawberry side. "He's been moody ever since he lost his title."

"You mean ex-Chosen of Mana?" I imitated Zelos flamboyant introduction and got a giggle out of the girl.

"Yeah, that. Oh, by the way, I'm Seles Wilder, the great ex-Chosen of Mana's sister." Seles was the one to imitate Zelos this time. I couldn't help smiling, though I quickly wiped it off when I noticed Zelos come up behind Seles.

"Oh, I see how it is. Let's all make fun of poor little me." Zelos put on a very fake sad face, slumped over, and trudged away. Seles just giggled some more, waved goodbye to me, and followed her brother into the town. I smiled and after waving back, went back to my seat on the stump.

"What am I supposed to do?" I let my question go unanswered into the wilderness. "I wanted to get out of that boring old town, maybe get into VG. I never thought I'd end up here. I liked where I was, it was easy. And now… Now I'm stuck in another world. I'm banished from my home. And I still don't know where Colin is." By now the sun had risen and the village behind me had come to life. Venders, travelers, and villagers were moving about in their daily routines. "Not only that, but I have to find some way to get Lloyd back to his parents. I don't know what to do." I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.

"Knowing what to do is for wise old men." I heard the person walking up behind me. His deep voice was kind of soothing in a way, made me think he was a wise old man. Looking up I found that he wasn't old at all; in fact he was the manliest man I've ever seen. His leg muscles were huge. I could easily see that his abdomen was completely ripped through his formal business shirt and tie. And his blue hair was well cropped and cut.

"And I suppose that you are that old man?" The pink haired girl who spoke appeared from behind the tall man. "Please, excuse our intrusion. My name is Presea Combatir." She wore a long purple dress with a leather belt around her waist. She folded her arms, which were mostly covered by worn leather gloves, and glanced wryly at her companion. Her pink hair was tied in a single ponytail which swayed in the now warmer breeze.

"And I am known as Regal Bryant. In regards to your earlier question, I believe you should do what's right. That may sound cliché, but in life you should follow your heart, act with your head, and do what's right." Regal turned and walked off. He's right though, it was pretty cliché.

"Do clichés make an old man wise?"

"I heard that Presea. Come alone, or we'll be late for the reunion." Presea smiled and followed Regal into the village. Perhaps Regal was right though. But what is the right thing to do? Origin said that I had the hopes and dreams of the planet on my shoulders. Does that mean that I'm responsible for the planets future? If I do nothing… will the planet be destroyed? Could I live with myself if I did nothing when I knew I could do something to stop it?

"There you are!" I turned around slowly and watched Marty run up to me. Geez, can't I get any alone time? "Come on, I want you to meet some people who might be able to help us get home."

"Home? I can't go home, I've been banished, remember?"

"Oh… well yeah, they can probably help with that too. Come on!" Marty grabbed my hand, the one with the new accessory that Raine was very adamant about not removing on it. She pulled me through the village until we were standing in front of a large wooden building, which wasn't surprising since the entire village was built out of wood, but this one was bigger than the rest, probably a meeting hall.

Inside, Zelos, Seles, Regal, and Raine, who were all milling about, looked up as Marty and I entered. Genis was off to the side talking with Presea. Upon closer inspection though, I find that Genis was blushing and stuttering while Presea was acting normal.

"Alex, I'd like to introduce you to-"

"I already met them." Marty seemed a bit shocked.

Regal nodded and said, "Yes. It appears that we've all introduced ourselves to you. I believe it is proper that you allow us the same courtesy." Geez, this guy's up tight. I guess he read my mind cause he didn't look too pleased with my silence. Zelos on the other hand seemed to be holding back laughter.

I sighed and nodded. I guess I'll just take this one step at a time. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. My name is Alex Enstryker. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to save the world."

* * *

Wow, it's been a while hasn't it. Whoo, it took a while for me to get back into the curve of writing. But I'm back baby! 

**Inri**: "Yes. And now I can beat Pit with a frying pan again." Proceeds to beat Pit with a frying pan.

**Pit**: Bam "Ouch!" Bang "Inri!" Bonk "Oof!" Boing "Ouch! Inri stop!"

**Inri**: "Whaa haha, this is so much fun. Oh, and Pit, I'll stop when you tell me what' blue, white, and red nowhere."

**Pit**: Bam "Oh no! Not more riddles!"

Well, those two are getting along fine.

**Pit**: "You call this getting along?" Dong "Ouch!"

Yeah, I'll just leave those two to it. I hope you readers enjoyed the chapter. Maybe somethings were explained. Maybe the questions got bigger. You'll only find the answer by reading on. Oh, and review's are appreciated as always. I usually answer them if I can, otherwise I just put the response in an AN at the beginning of the next chapter.

* * *

And now it is time for an advertisement. I will be doing this for every new chapter I put out. I think it will be fun. Anyway. Here we go:

What would happen if Lloyd wasn't raised by Dirk, but Altessa? Well, **_Dawnstarshine _**explores that question in her story,  
**Flipped Sideways**.  
Check it out today!

* * *

And another ad just for me, cause I like to self promote my owns stories.

A strange and mysterious boy who's destiny is linked to the fate of Sylvarant,Tethe'alla, and Earth. Join him as he travels the worlds in search of his missing memory and answers to the worlds problems in: **  
Tales of Symphonia: Dark Tidings  
**Read it!

That's all for now! As always, thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 9

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

"And that's why-" 

"Okay, stop." Zelos stood up from the plush couch in the middle of the room and walked to stand a few feet away from the rest of us, who remained seated, and then faced us. The look on his face wasn't encouraging. "You're telling us that you came from the future where Mana isn't used anymore. But there's a group trying to resurrect the use of Mana so that they can control the world. And the reason you were sent back here is because you were unable to defeat Origin for control of the Eternal Sword. And now you have to go on some crazy quest to beat all the Summon Spirits, get the Eternal Sword, go back home and save the world from these bad guys."

I nodded. Man, does he talk a lot. "Yeah, that about sums it up. You sure do talk a lot though."

Zelos clenched his fist and growled. Seles leaned over and whispered into my ear, "Yeah, he only does that only when he's scared."

"I heard that little sister. I still have good hearing you know, even though I'm not wearing my Exsphere." Seles looked around the room innocently, as if she didn't know what he was talking about. Presea looked back and forth between the red headed siblings, curious. Regal, who sat next to Presea on the couch opposite of me, Seles, and Marty, had his eyes closed and was chuckling to himself.

"There's one thing I don't get though," Genis piped up from the wall, where he'd been standing and periodically roaming about deep in thought. "I've tried to think of an answer but it just doesn't make any sense. How could you even use the Eternal Sword without making a pact with Origin in the first place? You even said that he gave you the Right of the Pact before you fought him. That means that the entire time you had the sword before that, even when you were using it, you weren't the rightful wielder. So why were you able to use it?"

"I agree with Genis," Raine said from the opposite side of the room, where she was doing nearly the same thing as Genis was, moseying about deep in thought. "I would go a step further though. If you're not the rightful wielder, Alex, then who is?" Raine looked at me for an answer, to which I just shrugged. I didn't ask any why the sword worked. I just used it. Raine didn't look too pleased with my answer. "In any case, we won't find those answers here. Besides, it appears that what Marty told us about the organization in the future is correlated by Origin's own words. He told Alex the world was ending, but that it was possible to save it, and he put that responsibility on Alex."

"Right," I said, "I've got to defeat the Elemental Spirits to earn the right to wield the Eternal Sword on my own. Then I can save the world… I hope." The uncertain looks everyone was giving me wasn't helping my already fragile confidence.

"Haven't we heard something like this before?" Everyone looked at Zelos. "You know, go on a quest, defeat the Summon Spirits, save the world." Huh? What does he mean? After looking around the room for some kind of explanation, Marty, Seles, and I appeared to be the only ones who remained in the dark. Though after a few seconds, Seles gave a quite 'oh yeah!' That left just me and Marty in the dark.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"It's nothing little man." Zelos walked over and ruffled my hair. I scowled and threw his hand off which only made him laugh. "So, what's next? The closest Spirit is Efreet, so why not take care of him first?"

"Hold it." We all looked at Marty as she held her hand up in front of her with her eyes closed. She always did that when she debated on the V-net. She said it was her favorite way of stopping people short. "What are we going to do about Lloyd?"

"I thought he was still on his journey to collect all the Exspheres in the world," said Regal. "I believe he stopped by the company not to long ago with Colette to sift through our records. He said he was looking for some kind of rare mineral, toward what ends I do not know."

"Actually, I think Marty was referring to the baby that Alex was carrying when he arrived earlier. We think that baby is, through some twist in time manipulation, Lloyd Irving." The atmosphere in the room right then made it feel like the floor had just dropped out. The looks of incredulity Genis was receiving was bordering on ridiculous. After sweating under the pressure for a few seconds, he stammered, "Oh, come on! Is it really that hard to believe after everything we just told you?"

"It isn't that we don't believe you Genis." Presea's comments struck me odd. They were devoid emotion. No, they had emotion, it just felt forced and mostly hollow. "What you said was simply unexpected. Please continue."

Genis nodded in understanding. "I see. Well, Alex was on Sylvarant before, just in the past, when Lloyd was still a baby. Long story short, he and baby Lloyd were thrown into the future and after a short stay there, they came back, just not far enough." Zelos struck a thoughtful pose, his long red hair seriously made him look like a girl.

"So, this baby is the Bud we all know and love?"

"Yeah, umm… Raine, where is Lloyd?" I'm wondering the same thing myself. Raine deadpanned at her brother, so I guess that means the answer is obvious. Oh yeah, he sleeping at the inn still. Genis realized this and moved toward the door. "I'll go check on him, see if he needs something. I'm not changing his diapers though." Genis made the last comment as he walked out the door and didn't get to hear Zelos snickering.

"I want to return Lloyd to his-" I didn't get a chance to finish because three large, deafening explosions cut me off and threw everyone to the floor. There was an annoying high pitched noise ringing through my head when I opened my eyes and saw that the entire building was on fire. Outside I could hear people shouting and screaming. I could also hear someone laughing.

I slowly made my wobbly legs stand, fought past the nauseous feeling, and watched everyone but me, Seles, and Marty scramble out the door, which was hanging off its hinges and blackened by the explosion to the point of looking like pitch. Dazed, we three moved quickly out the burning meeting hall to see the entire town on fire, destroyed, or in the process of being destroyed by one of four men wearing all white and holding long, white, glowing staffs that shot destructive white beams from their tips. There were three large craters in the middle of the town with smoke still rising out of their blackened depths.

The men holding the staffs were the ones laughing. The screams and shouts were coming from the people still in the houses, shops, and running down the streets. The men laughed maniacally as they aimed their staffs at the different buildings and people and spewed fire on them. The people, helpless to resist the overpowering firepower being brought upon them, screamed pitifully as they burned to death in the streets or besides their families in their homes.

I was bowled over by the smell of burning wood mixed with the smell of burning human flesh. The sound and cries of people dying made my knees buckle. I couldn't form a solid thought as I was confronted with the carnage presented to me. The fact that I couldn't find any trace of Raine, Genis, or the others fleetingly passed through the back of my mind, but in the end, the enormity of the situation focused my attention on the situation at hand.

After a momentary gawking period, I found myself and the girls surrounded by the four staff wielding men. The brightly glowing tips were pointed at our heads and I had no doubts of their intent to kill. However, they did not kill, they prodded us with their staffs until we were walking along toward the entrance of the town, the same place where I sat earlier that day thinking about what to make of all this.

There, standing over the crushed remains of the stone story tablet was a tall brown haired man with pointed ears. His dirty, multicolored clothes made him look like a common thief but he held himself like a soldier or someone who was in the military. And the look in his eyes and the scars on his face and exposed arms all led me to believe that he'd seen his fair share of battle.

The moment we were within several feet of the tall man, the murderers behind us knocked the back of our knees with their staffs, forcing us all to kneel in front of the tall military man. I took the moment to glance around and noted that Raine, Genis, and the others were sprawled all about the place. I think Marty noticed too because she was trembling to my right and Seles on my left was glaring at the man in front of us.

The man turned and looked each one of us up and down, pausing on Marty before he went over each of us once more. He leered disgustingly at Seles sauntered away, the fallen stone slab crunching under his feet. Coming to a stop, he clasped his hands in the small of his back and sighed.

"I come looking for the heroes of the World Reunification and what do I find?" The man's deep voice sent chills down my spine. He turned around and looked scornfully at us. "A quaint collection of has-beens protecting a village full of weaklings. I find it hard to believe that those weaklings defeated Mithos Yggdrasill."

I glared up at the tall man pacing back and forth in front of us. I could see Seles trembling out of the side of my eye. And I think Marty was crying. What I wouldn't give to have the Eternal Sword right now.

"You shut up!" Seles shouted. "You don't know anything about what my brother and his frien-" The white garbed man standing behind Seles snapped his staff into the back of her head, sending her gasping to the ground in pain. As she bent over I noticed how her clothes were singed and blackened all over.

"Oh I see, so one of those fools is your brother. Hmm…" The man glanced over the others bodies before he turned leered again at Seles. "I get it now. You're Seles Wilder. How deliciously convenient." The man moved quickly to stand in front of Seles and then picked her up with one hand around her throat. She dangled in the air and gasped for breath as the large man squeezed his equally large hand tighter around her wind pipe.

"Stop it!" Marty shouted. "You're going to kill her."

"That's the idea, human." The way that the man spat the word 'human' out made me think of the way that disgusting old man in the Asgard slums referred to Harley as a 'half-elf'. I though that Lloyd had solved this problem. Why are there still people discriminating against others?

Marty went to leap at the man and free Seles, but the man in white behind her slammed his staff into her head, sending her to the ground unconscious. Blood seeped from the spot on her head where she'd been struck. I felt my heart stop as the realization that these people were going to kill not only me and these innocent villagers, but my best friend too. Several moments in time passed as I watched Marty bleeding on the ground, listening to the man chocking Seles in front of me while laughing joyously, as if he'd been given the secret to infinite power. In those few moments, I felt my blood freeze in my veins. And then in a chain reaction that took only fractions of a second to occur, I felt my entire body, mind, and soul go nuclear.

Before I knew what my body was doing, I was leaping at the staff wielder who'd hit Marty on the head. I ripped the staff from his hands, spun around in a large circle, and bashed the staff into the side of the man's head.

Just as the unconscious form of the previous man hit the dirt, I was already in the middle of kicking the second staff wielder in the gut. He doubled over which allowed me to bash him in his back with the staff I was holding with as much force as I could put into the swing.

The man's spine made a satisfying snapping sound and he fell heavily to the ground at an awkward angle. The staff I'd commandeered had snapped in half as well, so I dropped threw its remains to the side and set my sights on my next target.

I was about to leap at the third white wearing man when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck that sent shivers down my spine and made my head spin. I fell to the ground in a heap and gasped for air. I was confronted with the memory of Kratos saying, _"Never take your eyes off of the enemy."_

"You surprised me boy. I never would have suspected that you were equipped with an Exsphere. No matter. I've carried out my cleansing mission here. I even found a bonus. I'll be seeing you around boy… or perhaps not." I watched the man's shadow appear above me before felt him lodging his foot in my mid section. I quickly lost the ability to breath and I swear that it sounded like several ribs were broken. It sure felt that way.

I fell on to my back in the dusty, sooty ground. Marty and Seles were out, though I could tell through my clenched eye lids as I tried to breathe again, that Seles wasn't dead. I saw the white clothed men pick up their fallen comrades and walk to stand next to the leader. When I saw what that man was holding, terror gripped my heart in its icy hands. The man and his lackeys slowly disappeared as they were warped from the area. The pressure behind my eyelids and in the back of my head slowly overcame me and the last thing I remember saying was, "Lloyd!"

* * *

"I believe events are playing out according to your predictions." 

"Yes. There was never any doubt. Speak of the alteration plan now."

"It's going well. Already, we have one of their strongest and he will be worshiping the goals of the Shivanai in one year's time."

"A year?"

"My apologies for the length of time required, but he is quite strong. His mind will take a very long time to break."

"Good. Everything is as I predicted. Good."

* * *

Well... That last chapter only got one review... I guess I'm spoiled. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I tried to make it as entertaining as possible. Hopefully I kept you readers entertained. If not, sorry. 

Now, I have a reasurance. Though it may seem like I'm just randomly throwing out plot twists and adding elements, I do actually have a plan. So if you can figure it out (Not likely) then more power to ya.

Again, thanks for reading, and if you like, please review.

* * *

And now for the Advertisement: 

If you're a fan of Final Fantasy and Tales of Symphona, then you have to check out _Jenova Remnant a.k.a. Fishie_'s crossover called:

**_If Only: Another Highly Exaggerated Self Insertion_**

* * *

Looking for a little excitement? Looking for a battle between two characters, a one on one battle to the death! Well, we've got what you're looking for. It's a new story called:

**_Battle Theater_**

by _Battle Theater_

This one is authored by _I.K.A. Valian_ and _Jenova Remnant a.k.a. Fishie_ and fueled by readers recommended fighters. If you want to see a specific person fight, whoever it is, submit their data and they'll be added to the list in the next chapter. The first chapter was an awesome battle between Kratos Aurion and Cloud Strife. Who wins? You'll have to read to find out.


	11. Chapter 10

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

"Master." 

"…"

"It is as you suspected Master. The chosen has made contact. They have placed of their hope in him completely."

"The fools wish to remain a thorn in my side. Very well. You!"

"Yes Master?"

"Go out and follow the Chosen. Make sure no harm comes to pass upon him by our own or others."

"Yes Master."

"Master, your sacrifices are prepared."

"Excellent. One hundred humans slaughtered on the war's eve. … Hmm… that doesn't seem like enough. Empty the prison yards!"

"All forty-thousand, Master?"

"…"

"I will obey, Master."

* * *

My head was pounding. The pain washed over me in skin prickling waves. Every time I thought about moving my neck, pain shot up and down my spin, like somebody was using each of my vertebrae as a succeeding note of a xylophone. But the pain was gradually going away. And when I didn't move, I could feel the soft sheets below me. 

Heh, any minute now, Marty was going to run into my room and start yelling at me to get ready for school. Since she lived directly across the street, it was a simple matter of running across the near deserted street to get to my house. My mom usually enjoyed the company and I'm sure she appreciated not having to deal with me and my not-so-happy-in-the-morning attitude.

And this morning's attitude wasn't going to be all that bright, especially with this neck pain I had. Ouch. Dammit, every time I move! I wonder what's taking Marty so long. I want to whine to her about this neck injury I got from… from… oh my God, I remember. Those half-elves in white… And what they did to… to…

"Marty!" I shot up, my sheets quickly gathering around my waist. I looked around spasmatically, trying to figure out what happened and where I was. The last thing I remembered seeing was… "Lloyd! No! They have Lloyd!"

I swept my legs to the side of the bed and hopped out. When my feet hit the floor, the shock of my feet hitting the hard wood floor was transmitted directly up my legs, spine, and into my neck, which exploded in pain. I clamped my hand around my neck and cried out loud enough to cause someone in another room to come running. After several moments of lying on the floor and holding my spasming neck, the door burst open and Zelos came into the room.

"Hey, you're finally awake little man." Zelos appeared at my side and found a way under my shoulder. As soon as he started lifting me up, my neck cried out in pain and I cried out along with it. Nonetheless, Zelos continued lifting until I was standing, though my legs felt like Jell-O with all the pain that now felt like a dull burning centered around the base of my skull. "As soon as I get you sitting on that bed, I'll let Raine know you're awake. She's been wanting to examine you and she has some questions for you too." Zelos sat me down gingerly on the bed and made to leave the room.

"Wait!" Zelos stopped and looked at m over his shoulder, his ridiculous red hair cascading over his back. I tried to speak, but my abdomen was tightening up from the pain. Finally I managed to gasp out what I wanted to ask. "What… happened to… Marty?" At first Zelos didn't respond, he just looked at me, stared was more like it.

Finally he said softly, "You'll see for yourself when Raine's done with you." I get the feeling that he didn't know how to tell me something bad happened to her. After speaking, he left, leaving the door creaking on his wooden hinges from the wind he left in his wake. I sighed, consciously keeping my neck muscles rigid so that it wouldn't move.

After several minutes, during which I imagined all sorts of terrible circumstances that could have befallen Marty, Raine appeared. She moved to my side and started looking me over. When she moved my head to look at the back of my head, my neck once more pinched the sensory nerves there and caused me to suck in a quick hissing breath as a wave of pain lanced down my spine like buckshot from an elephant gun.

"It appears that you've taken quite a hit to the neck." I guffawed and rolled my eyes. "I wasn't sure where you were hurt when I woke up and I didn't want to heal someplace that was already in good working order. So I was forced to wait until you woke up to find out. Hmm… the Exsphere you're wearing appears to be compounding the problem. However, you're still recovering from your near death, so it would be unwise to remove it." Raine started prodding and poking my neck, eliciting gasps from me. It really hurt. I realized when she stopped touching my neck and stood up that the entire time Raine was feeling around my neck I was stroking the Exsphere attached to my hand. "I believe that I can heal this with a precision healing spell. It shouldn't be too hard, but I'll need Genis' help."

I managed to turn my head just enough to look at the silver haired healer. I guess I was looking at her like I was dreading her treatment because she gave me her own condescending look before she turned to leave.

"Raine?" She stopped and turned around. "Please… Please tell me what happened to Marty?" Raine's face fell and she averted her gaze. Now I was sure something was wrong. "Please. She's my best friend in the world aside from Colin. I can't bear not knowing if she is or isn't okay."

Again, Raine was silent and did not look at me. Then she said regretfully, "It isn't just Marty. Both she and Zelos' sister, Seles, are in a coma. Even with my knowledge of the healing arts, I don't know what's causing it. There's been no trauma to the head or any other part of their bodies. It's almost as if they've fallen into a deep sleep from which they won't wake up." She fell silent once more. Then she walked off, the words, "I'll be back with my healing supplies," trailing behind her.

However, what she said after the word 'coma' had completely gone over my head. Marty was in a coma. She was in a coma. She was in a coma because of something those foul men did. The foul men that took Lloyd with them had also hurt Seles.

I started clenching and unclenching my fist by my sides. I could feel my heart speed up as I visualized tearing those horrible people to pieces with my bare hands. If there was one thing I could not stand, it was someone hurting my friends.

When Raine walked back into the room with her staff and Genis trailing behind her, I snapped out of my anger induced trance. I buried the burning emotion deep down to let out later, and managed to turn my head to look at them. Raine set down her staff on the bed next to me and turned to me holding a clear crystal with runes carved onto its surface. Genis was standing on the other side of me with what looked like some sort of toy, only the ball attached to the string was equipped with large and lethal looking spikes. Even though the pain was lessening gradually since I wasn't moving, it spiked when I looked at the pointy looking toy Genis was holding, as if in fear of the coming treatment and its demise.

Raine and Genis looked at each other and nodded. I swallowed loudly as Raine picked up her staff and moved the crystal closer to my neck. I clenched my eyes shut just as the crystal lit up with a soft white light, anticipating world altering pain. When the crystal made contact with my neck, its cool surface had a soothing effect on the pain boiling not so far beneath the skin.

When Raine lifted the crystal from my neck several seconds later and the pain I was expecting didn't materialize, I was a little confused. I opened my eyes and looked at Raine. And then at Genis. They were both looking down at me with their arms crossed. I could definitely see how they were related.

"So how does it feel?"

I turned my head to look at Genis when it dawned on me. My neck was all better. I reached up and massaged my neck with my hand for a few seconds before I nodded and stood up.

"It feels good. Okay, now take me to Marty." Genis and Raine didn't move. They stood in their places and looked at each other. "Please?" I prodded. Genis nodded and grabbed my arm, directing me to move out the door into the hallway.

We moved down the wooden hallway until we came to a stairwell. At the bottom, the hallway opened up into a large room. The first thing I noticed was that it was dark outside. The second thing I noticed were the flakes of white falling serenely outside, adding to the white layering already on top of the terrain.

Inside of the house, there was a small fireplace at the far end of the room. Directly in front of the crackling flames was two tall back, leather bound chairs. In the center of the room was a large wooden table on top of which was a white table cloth with floral patterns imprinted onto its surface. Along the back wall was a tall cabinet with dishes and other dining ware stacked neatly inside of it. But other than that, and a few rugs and food items, the room was empty.

"Where's Marty?" Genis went to the door and opened it, letting the cold air and snow flakes blast inward. I quickly went about walking outside, but Genis held me back and pointed downward, directly at my bare feet, and then at a pair of shoes next to the door. I shook my head and immediately went about throwing on the shoes in the quickest manner possible. Why was this taking so long!

"Marty and Seles are being cared for in the medical building that was built here by one of Raine's medical students," Genis explained as we walked out the door. "She's really strict when it comes patients put in her care, so you really don't have to worry too much about Marty," Genis shouted over the wind. "Though if they get on her bad side maybe you will have something to worry about," he added. It took me four steps into this winter wonderland before I started shivering. I was only wearing thin leathers after all. I was shivering fiercely next to Genis as we both trudged on through the several inches of ice and snow.

It wasn't that stormy outside, but it was bitterly cold and what wind existed was whipping snow about like suriken. I could easily tell all the houses we passed had people in them from the tell tale firelight glowing from their frosted windows. I shook my head of my roaming eyes and locked them on the path in front of me. Though I was shivering, I somehow kept my pace even and steady. What really kept me moving though were probably the thoughts of Marty running through my head. I hope she's going to be okay.

Genis eventually stopped in front of another wooden building with small white sign hanging over the door. On the sign was the symbol of a staff with a glowing crystal on top. I'm going to assume that means medicine or something. Once Genis managed to get the door open with his now frost bitten hands, we both rushed into the building.

Inside I came face to face with a very irate looking young woman. She was standing there in a long white gown that had long sleeves. Aside from the green belt around her waist she wore a white cap on top of her auburn and curly hair. Her arms were crossed and she was tapping both her foot and fingers in synchronization. She was definitely not happy.

"Genis Sage, you know better than to travel through this kind of weather with nothing but the shirt on your back. And to pull a mere human along with you. You, sir, must have a death wish." I watched the woman walk brazenly up to Genis as if she were going to slap him. Instead she leaned forward and got as close to his face as physically possible without touching. "You know I don't like treating you, and I wouldn't hesitate to let you freeze to death if it weren't for your sister."

Genis, eyes wide and still shivering, stuttered, "I-I-I'm sorry, Elise. You kno-" Genis said more, but I wanted to find Marty as soon as possible. I quickly made my way further into the building. Through a hallway, another room held two rows of beds, two of which were occupied and lit up. One held Seles and the other held Marty. I rushed to Marty's beds side leaving wet snow tracks in my wake.

"Marty…" I shook her shoulders lightly. "Marty, wake up." Nothing. I trembled as I slid to the floor. "Marty, I'm sorry," I sobbed, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I tried, but… I'm sorry."

"I know it's hard, but you've got to hold on and keep hope," someone from behind me said. Her voice was like that of an angel. I turned slightly and saw an average height blond woman coming toward me. Looking down on me kindly, she put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Even if everything seems lost, you mustn't give up. As long as you never give up, there's always hope."

I wiped my eyes and nodded. As I stood up, the blond woman walked over to look down upon Seles, well she attempted to, but she tripped and fell flat on her face. In the process, one of the floor boards came loose and flew into the air. It landed top of Zelos' head just as he entered the door way.

"Oh no, not again!" the woman cried in shock, "Oh no, Zelos, I'm sorry!"

"It's… nothing Colette, don't worry about it my sweet angel," Zelos replied while rubbing his head. "I just came to see how Seles was doing. I'm glad you and Lloyd could make it on such short notice though."

"Oh it was easy, Mr. Zelos. This is our home town of Iselia after all." While those two talked around Seles' bed, I sat down next to Marty and watched her sleeping in her peaceful coma. It was at that moment that the anger I'd buried earlier dug its way to the surface again and I found myself clenching my fist once more. Marty, one of my closest friends, was in a coma because of something those people did.

I leaned down real close to Marty's ear and whispered, "Marty, I swear. I'll find those men and make them pay. They will pay dearly for taking Lloyd and even more for hurting you. Just stay safe here, and I'll be back with the cure." I stood up and started walking out of the room.

"H-hey, kid, where do you think you're going?" Zelos shouted at me as I passed him. I kept on walking out of the room without answering him. I made it into the hall before he came up behind me and grabbed onto my shoulder. "What do you think you can do, huh?" the older man rasped. His words burned my ears, made me want to reach out and sock him in the face. "Don't you think if there was something that could be done right now, I'd be the first one out there doing it? That's my sister in there! My only family left in the entire world!"

I didn't know how to respond to that. He was right. There was no denying that he felt something like what I was going through. I don't even really know why I was this worked up over a friend. It wasn't like Marty was blood relations, but I still couldn't help feeling this way. She and Colin are my best friends, my only friends. And just like me, those men took away something precious from…

"So what can we do about it?" I asked him without turning around. "What are you doing about it?"

Zelos let go of my shoulder, turned, and walked back into the patient ward. I was about to walk off before I heard his answer. At first I wasn't sure what he said, but the more I though about it, the clearer its meaning became. He said, "When the bastards show their faces again, I'll rip their throats out."

I though on what he said for a few minutes. He was right, if there was something he could do, he'd be doing it. But if that were true, then why was he staying here? Why wasn't he out looking for those bastards so he could rip their throats out faster? Could it be that he knew where they were likely to show again? How? I intended to find out. And the first thing I wanted to do was look at what they did once more. Maybe they left some kind of clue behind.

My thoughts were jarred from their track when the front door opened and in walked Raine, holding the two pieces of the white staff that I broke on one of those men's back. It and Raine had pieces of snow stuck to it from the storm outside that was now slowly melting in the interior heat.

"Oh, hello Professor Raine," Colette greeted from behind me.

"Raine! Get her away from me!" Genis bound into the room from another hallway opposite the one that held the patient ward. He had lost his shirt somehow and was covered in what looked like red dots. "She's gonna kill me."

"Oooh Genis!" a voice sing-songed from the hallway he'd come from. "You know your treatment isn't finished. Why don't you come back here before I put you into more pain from which to heal you from?" Genis shuddered upon hearing the voice and ducked slightly when a hand reached out from the hallway and grabbed him. He gave Raine one last pleading look before he was dragged backwards down the hallway he'd run from.

I looked at Raine for an answer, but she had a bemused expression on her face. Apparently, this wasn't the first time Genis has had trouble with Elise. Before I could move past Raine and out the door, she put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her and she gave me a troubled expression.

"I want to talk with you about something." I had to suppress that irritated feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to get out of here and look around the burned down village. Nodding at Raine I turned and trudged back into the patient ward. Raine stayed behind for several moments to talk with Colette alone. When I arrived in the ward, I sat down on the bed next to Marty and closed my eyes.

How did this all happen? Why did it seem to be happening to us? Who were those men? How did they get there? Where did the come from? What did they want? My recent experiences force me to wonder when they were from. I let these questions roam freely in my mind but no answer came.

"Alex?" I opened my eyes and watched Raine sit down on the bed across from me. Then she looked me straight in the eyes. "I wanted to ask you about this staff. Before, Martel was able to explain that she was aware of a technology that could replace the use of Mana. But she was vague in describing it and only said that it wouldn't be invented for an extremely long time. Since that fight several days ago in Neudon, I've been thinking about what she said, you being from the future and how she was a Mana Guardian. Everything she said about that technology seems to be present in this staff." I felt my jaw slowly dropping. Zelos, who'd been sitting in a chair next to Seles, then spoke up.

"Are you saying that those staffs were not Magi-technology?" he asked, putting the book he'd been reading down on Seles' bed.

"Yes, this staff, and I also believe the others were as well, are of a type of technology I've never seen before. It uses impossible mechanisms to achieve the same result of Magi-technology. But all the same, it is not Magi-technology. Whatever it is, it's on a completely different level than what I'm used to."

"But Raine…" She looked at me and I went on. "You brought up the fact that Marty said something about a technology from the future. You think that technology is what makes up that staff?" I had to confirm what she thought before I could be sure.

"Yes," she nodded. "I can't fathom any other way that technology such as this existing. It's completely illogical, not to mention impossible for our current technology to use anything but Mana. Even Cruxis used Magi-technology, and theirs was the best technological know how on or off the planet."

"Okay then," I said, taking a deep breath. "I think I know what it is then. But what I want to know now is how it got here, how they had it, and what in the world is really going on?" Raine and Zelos looked at me expectantly. I sighed bitterly. "If what you're saying is correct, and it is what I think it is. Then that staff, and the staffs of the other men, were in fact created from V-tech."

"V-wha?"

"V-Tech. It's the technology we use in the future where I'm from. I must say I'd not heard of magic before the fight in the museum that started this whole mess. V-tech was-is what our whole world depends on for our way of life. Our airplanes use it, our communications technology uses it; heck, we even use it to make food."

"Okay, hold on. This V-tech stuff sounds great and all, but so what? That doesn't really tell us anything other than how many uses this stuff has. What exactly does V-tech do? And what does the 'V' stand for?" I gave Zelos a nod.

"Alright, I'll start from the beginning, but I feel like I'm talking to a bunch of kindergarteners. Well, no, even they know how to use V-tech."

"Just humor us," Raine said flatly.

"The word V-tech stands for Virtual Technology. It's a type of technology that pulls its power from virtual space, or as some call it, imaginary space."

"So wait," Zelos interuped, holding a hand in the air. "You're telling me you guys in the future literally pull stuff out of thin air?"

"Well, I don't know the specifics, only what they teach us in school. But I guess since what V-tech creates isn't really there, then I suppose so. But that's not all V-tech does. It can also create objects, from a spoon to a living being. Again, I don't know the specifics, but somehow, the technology uses its vast virtual computing power to rearrange the molecules in the real world so that they become the desired object."

Raine lifted the two pieces of the white staff in front of her. For a moment I couldn't read her expression but then it became quite obvious and I became slightly frightened. The look on her face wasn't that of a calm teacher or a caring healer, but that of an overly obsessed maniac. Her cheeks were flushed as she started running her fingers lovingly over the surface of the broken staff. That is until Zelos pulled them from her grasp. It took seconds for Raine's eyes to narrow to mere slits.

Genis and Elise were brought into the room by the ruckus. It was fifteen minutes before Genis and I could pull Raine off of Zelos, who'd wound up with several large bruises and many bumps on his noggin. Zelos, in a shaken and shocked state of immobility, was guided from the room by Elise. Meanwhile, Genis was cowering underneath Raine in a corner. She was just standing there, glaring.

I glanced sadly at Marty before I started making my way out of the room. As I passed Raine and Genis I said, "I want to get a better look at the town they destroyed. If they were using V-tech, perhaps they left other things behind, other clues. Besides…" I glanced at Raine who was now holding Genis up by the front of his shirt while leaning over him almost completely. Genis wasn't that distressed however. Apparently, this sort of thing happens a lot. Both the Sages were looking at me curiously. "… I still want to know more about the Summon Spirits. I remember Zelos saying that Efreet was in the desert. Maybe this Efreet will know more about what's going on or how to heal Marty and Seles."

"Uh, Raine, I know you still have work to do here in Iselia, but I'm free. I could go with Alex and make sure he doesn't get into trouble. And I'll take Zelos too." Raine nodded and stood up, letting go of Genis' shirt, and dusted herself off.

"Okay then, the more the me-"

Raine cut me off and said, "Genis, promise me _you_ won't get into any trouble." Genis responded with a wry grin before he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. Genis sure does seem anxious to get out of here, I wonder why. We moved down the hallway to the front room where we ran into a furry Zelos and Elise. Why did Zelos have a coat on already?

"Zelos, why are you wearing a coat?" Elise through a coat on top of Genis head, muffling his next sentence. Zelos shrugged.

"I figured I'd go for a walk outside, but before I could even get out the door this…" Zelos glanced warily at Elise, who was tapping her foot and glaring at him irately. "… lovely woman helped me by giving me a coat." Elise 'hmphed' and walked off.

"Well, Alex and I are going to go back to Neudon to see if there's anything missed clues," Genis said through the coat as he pulled it down over his head. "Alex also wants to see if Efreet knows anything about the coma Seles and Marty are in or the strange attackers. Wanna come?"

"Sure, I'll come. Seles should be safe up here for a while, especially with Lloyd around." Lloyd? Oh, he must mean the older Lloyd. Hmm, I don't have time to meet him now, but if he's still here when we get back, maybe then I'll get to meet him.

I clenched my fist and tried to move around Zelos to get out the door. All this talking and thinking was taking too long. As soon as my hand touched the door handle, another furry coat fell over my head. Oh yeah, it's still cold outside. By the time I fixed the coat around myself and stuck my head through the neck hole, Genis and Zelos were already out the door and moving through the snow.

I turned to Elise and said, "Thanks. Please, take care of Marty. I swear I'll be back with the cure." Elise nodded and I left, pulling the door closed behind me with an audible click.

* * *

Ahh, that took a while. But it wasn't because I didn't know what was going to happen. I was in the process of fleshing out Alex's character. Hopefully he's even more beleivable now. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story so far. Please review. Thank you for reading.

* * *

Time for the Advertisment. 

When Genis disappears on the quest for half elf equality, everyone assumes he is dead. What happens when he turns up eight years later? Why hasn't he contacted anyone? What has he been put through? Genis is no longer the sweet little boy he once was...

_**Past, Present, Future**_

By **_ whatsername427  
_**


	12. Chapter 11

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

After a long tim of not writing this chapter, I finally managed to convince myself to bite the bullet and do it. But it's not as long as I wanted because of school. But that's okay. I got in what I wanted to get in. Please, enjoy.

* * *

"Where are we headed to again?"

Zelos sighed, again. "You know, you're almost as annoying as the twerp… when he was younger."

"Watch it Zelos," Genis growled, "that twerp is walking right behind you. Not to mention that twerp's Eruption spell could give the Mana Cannon a run for its money."

"Eh… uh… right, still a twerp. Anyway, we are headed to the town of Inundea. It's in between here and the remains of that other town," Zelos explained to Alex for the fourth time.

"Why are we stopping there?"

"Because kid, we have to sleep, can't really see our way during the night, now can we."

"Oh… yeah, I suppose we can't. Wow, who knew artificial light was so useful."

"Yeah, so with that out of the way, can we have some peace and quiet around here? Or do I have to plug my ears up?"

"I don't know Zelos," I jibed, "How full of it are you?" I chuckled as I watched Zelos sulk in submission. "Awe, come on Zelos, you can't be that easy to beat!"

"Kid, I used to have more patience than this, but something horrible happened."

"Oh, and what was that?" When Zelos didn't answer, I turned to Genis who waved the older man off like a pest.

"He's using the same excuse Regal and Raine use." I arched an eye brow curiously.

"And that would be?" Genis made a noise that was a mix between a chuckle and a giggle.

"And that would be that he's too old." I couldn't help but grin like an idiot at that.

"Too old?"

"Yep!"

"No way! He looks too young."

"And I thank you for pointing out that my beautiful bod hasn't gone away," Zelos interrupted. "After all, I can still get a Honey like I'm picking fruit. And what luscious fruit indeed!"

"Say… wha? What are you talking about?" Zelos waved it off and Genis rolled his eyes.

"Never mind kid, we're almost there. And a good thing too, the sun's almost down and it's about time to prowl. I just hope this place has some bodacious babes for the picking cause I'm starving."

"Sure," I said, slowly edging away from the older man, "whatever floats your boat…"

"That's the spirit Al!" Zelos slapped me on the back a few times, knocking the breath out of me and causing me to stumble. "You don't mind if I call you Al, do ya?"

"Uh, sure," I gasped, "Not a problem." I glanced at Genis and watched him shake his head and walk into the small town. People were bustling about, pushing carts of goods this way, hurrying that way, and some times yelling at each other. A sense of progress seemed to be imbued in everything that was going on. It was as if each and every one of these people knew they were making a difference simply by doing their jobs frugally. The town seemed even more prosperous when the tree males walked onto the partially paved streets surrounding the tall central building. "This place is pretty busy. But it doesn't look anything like Asgard. Why aren't there any muddy streets?"

"There aren't any because this place used to only have a House of Salvation. But ever since the Church of Martel was dismantled, people just used those old places as hotels or museums of one kind or another. The market built up here because it's on the way to Iselia, which is now a growing sea-port. And during the winter months, such as now, the ships have a hard time coming into the harbor to offload their goods. So this town has become something of a trading center for the entire area." Genis looked around and gathered his bearings. Then he made a bee-line for a tall building toward the back of the small bustling village.

"Wow…" This place was bigger than I though it was. The town's small front belied the fact that there was a lot of construction going on behind the towering building in the center. When we were close enough to the taller building I saw a large sign post on the side of the wall. The board was very dirty so I could only make out the words 'House… Salvation… Chur… Martel'. Genis came to a stop directly in front of the large building and looked it up and down.

"This is the place," he announced. I let my eyes roam over the four story exterior of the building. I focused on the building materials being hauled to the roof with a crane and winch. '_They must still be adding floors to this building. Still_,' I thought to myself '_these dinky little buildings are nothing compared to the ones in my time. Sky scrapers and super malls… not to mention the VG Tournament hall, yeah, these people have a long way to go to beat that._'

As we entered the wooden double doors of the hotel, Genis went up to the counter and started talking with the woman there. What I should say is that he started haggling with the person there; I guess heroes don't get a discount. While he was doing that, I wandered around the circular bottom floor, looking over a few of the objects on display. A small wooden tablet with a picture of a sword wielding man carved into it caught my eye. It wasn't the carving that stopped me but the name that was carved into the wood beneath the picture. "ConLing Aunter" seemed like it should be important to me, but I'd never heard the name before.

"Hey Al, what's up?" I nearly jumped when Zelos materialized next to me out of thin air. Somehow, I restrained my instinctual response to lash out with my fist.

"I was, uh… just looking at this carving."

"Does it mean anything?" I shrugged.

"I'm not sure, it just feels kind of important for some reason." I kneeled down and read the description inscribed into a plaque. "This wooden tablet is believed to portray a warrior of one of the ancient Balacruf Kings. This is one of the pieces that were discovered in the tomb beneath the Great Wind Seal in Asgard, discovered last year by the Great Professor Sage."

"Ah, yes, the beauteous Professor. Such a Hunny is the only one who could find things such as this."

"Watch it Zelos…" Zelos froze and slowly turned his to look down at Genis. The dark look he was giving the older man sent shivers down my spine. "That's my sister you're talking about. And I don't like it when _you_ talk about my sister, or don't you remember the last time it happened."

Zelos forced himself to laugh and smile. "Well, if it isn't Genis." He started heartily slapping the young half-elf on the back, smiling merrily. "So good to see you standing right there behind me where you could hear everything I was saying. Well… did you get us a room?" Zelos' attempt to quickly change the topic was not unnoticed by Genis, but he let it slide with a nod.

"Yes, I got us a room. They won't let us stay for free. I said that you, the great and mighty Zelos, were staying with us too, but that didn't have much of an effect. They said that it was impossible for them to give us a discount because one such as mighty as you could never possibly exist. I think they just need to see your might for themselves."

"Heh, you got that right. Stand back and watch the master at work." Zelos puffed up his chest and started strutting up to the girl behind the counter. Genis grinned like a Cheshire cat and started making his way stealthily up the stairs.

"Hey, Genis!" I called. Genis paused half way up the stairs and turned to face me.

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering what that was all about. You didn't seem to be complimenting him. …So why did you do that?"

Genis grinned again, glanced at Zelos chatting it up with the lady behind the desk, and then whispered conspiratorially to me, "I did it so that I wouldn't have to pay the bill." With that Genis spun around and quickly scaled the rest of the staircase.

"Aww! Come on! Can't I even get a little discount? Please!?" I turned around and saw the lady behind the counter giving Zelos, who was on his knees begging, a stern glare.

"I'm sorry, Mr. 'Former Chosen'" she said, making quotes in the air with her fingers, "But we don't make exceptions with the rates. You will pay the full amount or you're sleeping in the gutter."

Zelos clenched his hands and then yelled up at the ceiling, "You'll pay for this Genis!" I listened carefully and could hear someone laughing maniacly from the floor above. "Grrr, stupid twerp!" Zelos got to his feet and started fishing for money in one of his pockets. I was trying to hold in my laughter, but the look on Zelos' face threw me over the edge. I swear, he looked like a constipated old woman.

The next morning was a normal morning, if you can call anything I've been going through for the past few months normal. While the others were getting breakfast, I looked around the market as it slowly came to life. Shop owners were slowly making their way to their stalls, maids and servants were cleaning households and dumping the dirty water into the gutters, sparse amounts of people wandered about.

I stopped my wandering in front of a shop that was already set up and ready for the morning rush of customers. "Ye ole Enchanted Items," I read on a sigh above the stall. The stall owner noticed me standing in front of his shop and started hobbling out toward me.

"Greeetings! Greeetings, young traveler. Might I interest you in the purchase of an enchanted item?" I looked down at the slightly crippled, hobbling old man that was addressing me.

"Uh… I don't really-"

"Non-sense, young man, take a look and then tell me which one strikes your fancy. Go on," he said, giving me a push into his shallow stall, "take a look." I rubbed the spot where the old man roughly pushed me. Then I took a look around the small, but completely packed stall of stuff. Half of it looked like garbage and the other half didn't look any better. "I know what you're thinking, young man. You must be in complete awe of the wondrous things that surround you."

"Uh.. actually…"

"So, have you decided which one you like the most? You know, they say that magical items choose their owner before the owner was even born."

"Sure, mister… um…"

"Oh, just call me Old-man, everyone else does."

"Okay." Just then a small dagger caught my eye. There wasn't anything remarkable or exciting about it. In fact, when I picked it up, I found out that the edges were dulled and that the tip of the blade had been chipped off. The hit looked well used, and the pommel was jagged with rusty spots.

However, the moment I picked it up, I felt a small jolt of electricity shoot from my finger tips where I was touching the dagger, throughout my body. '_What was that?_'

* * *

"Hey look," Zelos pointed at a small grouping of blackened buildings in the distance. "We're almost there."

"Thank God," I said, "We've been walking for over twelve hours."

"If you think this is bad, wait till we get to the Triet Desert. I don't know if you remember it, but that's where you almost died."

"Wha- so that's where Efreet lives? Why didn't any one tell me that?!" I yelled and threw my hands into the air for emphasis. Zelos and Genis grunted and kept moving forward. '_I can't believe this. I have to go back into that freaking death trap! Oh, thank you so much Mr. Origin. Jerk!' _Then another though struck me and I asked, "What kind of spirit is Efreet anyway?"

"Oh, he's the Spirit of Fire, heat, and all things boiling lava hot," Zelos said happily.

"Oh… great," I groaned.

"He's actually not that bad," said Genis. "At least he can speak. Volt on the other hand is one of the most anti-social spirits I've ever seen."

"Yeah, I remember Volt. That's the Spirit that gave Sheena all that trouble years back, right?"

"Sheesh Zelos, how could you forget that?"

"Hey Twerp, I didn't forget, I just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten. Besides," said Zelos, suddenly getting a lot quieter, "I don't think I could forget."

"Hey, do you guys see that?" I pointed toward several moving objects in and around the burned down town.

"Yeah, I wonder who that could be," mused Zelos.

"You don't think they could be working with those men that put the girls in comas and kidnapped Lloyd, do you?" I stopped walking and looked at the expressions that Genis and Zelos had. "You two don't look very convincing, you know that?" The two looked at each other with their shared grim expressions and nodded.

"Alright," said Genis. I turned to face him next to Zelos, forming a circle. "We've got approximately six miles between us and the remains of Neudon. I say we wait for the cover of darkness and then sneak in along the tree line over there." Genis pointed off into the distance toward the edge of a dark forest. "If those men leave before night, then all's well. If not, we find out what they're up to, as well as if they actually have anything to do with what's going on."

"In the mean time," added Zelos, "I suggest we take stock of what we have in order to be battle ready if a fight is ahead." I stared at Zelos incredulously. "Hey," he said to me, "don't give me that look. I don't like being unprepared is all."

"Sure could have fooled me!" I joked.

"Yeah, that's what I wanted." Zelos then ignored my astonished glare and said, "I only have my traveling sword with me, I left all the good one's at home."

"That's okay," said Genis, waving it off. "I've got my magic, that should be enough."

"Hey," I interrupted. "What about me? I want to-"

"Sorry kid," Zelos ruffled my hair. I threw his hand off in annoyance. '_That's the second time he's done that. Arg!'_

"We're battle hardened heroes," he said. "We don't have time to train you or get you a weapon. So you'll just have to sit this one out."

"Sorry Alex, but agree with Zelos." Then under his breath, Genis muttered, "I can't believe I said that."

"Fine. But if you get your butts handed to you buy a bunch of V-tech wielding jokers, don't blame me. I wish I had the Eternal Sword with me." I reached to my waist and fingered the hilt of the small dagger attached there. It made me feel better knowing that I at least had something to protect myself with, even if it was nearly useless as a weapon.

Our planning done, Genis lead the way. We trekked onward through the rest of the day, and by time we reached the forest the sun was just beginning to dip beneath the horizon. When the sun finally retired for the night, we were just coming up to the edge of the village.

"Okay," said Genis. We were all hiding behind a blackened wall of a building that looked like it used to be the Inn. "From what I can see, these guys don't look very powerful. They don't have any armor on."

"Don't let that kind of thing fool you. Remember, Yggdrasill didn't have any armor on, and he was hard as hell to defeat."

"Zelos, these guys' are not Mithos. Plus, he had a Cruxis Crystal attached that forced his body to heal almost as fast as we cut him. That was a form of armor, you know. And besides, we don't even know if these guys have anything to do with that other group. So before we start a fight, we should make sure of their intentions."

"Well then, let's split up. I'll go left, you go right, and we'll meet up in the middle." Genis nodded at Zelos. Feeling left out, I touched both of their shoulders and caused them to look at me.

"Alex, you should stay here and wait for us to come and get you. If you see or hear someone coming toward this spot, find someplace-"

"Don't worry Genis," I said, waving him off. "Just go kick some butt will ya."

Genis grinned and with a nod, he was off, jogging around the perimeter of the burned down village. Zelos did the same, disappearing around the other side of the wall we were hiding behind.

I waited for several minutes, during which the only thing I heard were bugs. '_Thank God they're not the giant variety._' I shivered. '_I still can't forget that enormous grasshopper that nearly pulled my insides out. Thankfully, Kratos was there._' I leaned back and looked up at the stars while listening to the night time sounds. '_I wonder if they made it out alright. The last thing I saw was Kratos running toward Kvar right after he shot me. I hope nothing bad happened to them._' Then realization dawned on me. '_Hey, if this is the future, maybe I can find out what happened to him. I mean, obviously, I must succeed if Lloyd survived to become the savior of the world. I should ask Lloyd what happened when I meet him. What in the world is taking them so long? I've got to have been here over an hour by now!_'

I slowly stood up and moved closer to the edge of the black crispy wooden wall I was hiding behind. When I peaked around the corner, the only thing I could see was a single lit torch lighting a small area in front of the building. I looked over the small alley between the building I was hiding behind and the one next to it to make sure that no one was hiding in the shadows. Satisfied that no one was there, I slowly crept along the blackened, fire smelling wall until I could look past the blazing torch and into the center of the village.

I saw them. There were four of them. Men from the looks of it. I couldn't make out what they looked like because they were all standing in the shadows. Finally, a fifth man, this one holding a torch, walked into the clearing. What I saw made me gasp. Genis was standing behind a badly beaten Zelos, holding him up by the shirt. What really caught my attention the most was that Genis' eyes, along with everyone else's but Zelos', were glowing.

All the men and Genis gathered around Zelos' broken body and joined hands. The point where their hands connected began to glow as well. Finally a bright light filled the sky and shone on Zelos. After a few seconds had gone by, the light faded. I watched, never taking my eyes off of Zelos. Finally, the redhead slowly stood up, his eyes now glowing.

* * *

Mwaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa... cliff hanger.

If you want this little hang up to be resolved, then please review.

And of course, thank's for reading.


	13. Chapter 12

"I do not own the Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

The ice cold blade of a knife pressed against my neck was the farthest thing from my mind as I was dragged into the small circle of people, all their eye glowing. Instead, I was focused on Zelos, who was standing in front of me and looking down at me like I was a piece of meat, and Genis, who was doing the same thing.

"Wha- who are you people? And what have… have you…"

"Shut up kid!" the man behind me barked, smacking the side of my head.

"We finally found you," said Zelos. Only it wasn't his voice, it was the voice of a little girl. I watched his lips move to form the words he was speaking, but he was indeed speaking with the voice of a little girl. "You will lead us to where you have hidden the Eternal Sword. If you do not, we will kill these hosts." Zelos suddenly pulled a knife out and stuck it against his own throat.

"What have you done to them? Who are you?"

"We are the Vanguard," said Genis, only his voice sounded like an extremely old man. "And you are the wielder of the Eternal Sword. You will give us the sword, it has been foretold."

"I…" I couldn't tell them I didn't have the sword. They don't look like the people who would believe that kind of thing. But what else can I do. "I… don't have it any more," I said looking down.

"Don't lie unless you wish to have your friend's throat cut," said the little girl voiced Zelos.

"I'm not lying," I argued vehemently, "The Eternal Sword was taken away from me because of something about lacking the right." I glanced around at the unbelieving faces that these people were making. "Origin himself took it away. I'm telling you I don't have it anymore."

"If what you say is true," said a man to my left, his voice that of a sultry young woman, "then you are not the one we seek."

"That's impossible!" shouted the man holding me with a knife to my throat. "This kid bears the mark and has the aura!"

"That only means that he can bear the sword, not that he has the sword."

"Well then who has it?!"

"Perhaps, it is still in the care of its old master."

"You mean Lloyd Irving," said the man to my right, with a little boy's voice.

"Yes," replied the sultry woman.

"We assumed that he didn't have the sword anymore because his aura has changed, he is no longer able to lift the blade."

"You're wrong," said Genis' extremely old man. "This host has knowledge of what actually took happened back then. Lloyd Irving, the Eternal Swordsman, split the Eternal Sword into two pieces, two swords, The Flamberge and The Vorpal Sword."

"Those swords are mere legends!" said the man holding me.

"Not in this time," said the old man.

"So then… what do we need with this boy then?" The man holding me shook me a little for emphasis.

"This host has knowledge," said the little girl, stiffening Zelos' back. "He is to get the blessing from each of the strains of Mana."

"Blessings…" mused the sultry woman. "Blessings for… wielding the Eternal Sword I assume."

"Then all is not lost," said Old man Genis. "We simply have this boy complete his quest and then he will hand us the sword."

"Who will go with him and make sure he does what he's supposed to?"

"This host and the host named Zelos were this boy's original companions, they will be again."

"Then all is set," The sultry woman said, though the man's body she was hiding in was starting to tremble. "Success!" she shouted.

"Success!" shouted the five men, Genis, and Zelos. I was shoved violently onto the ground. When I looked up, I watched everyone but Zelos and Genis plunge a dagger into their throats. Blood spurted out in large fountains, covering the ground in a crimson hue. I shuddered and turned away.

"Come on, Alex," said Genis, with his normal voice. "We have to get going." I looked up at Genis and his eyes flashed. "And don't think we have left, boy! We will be watching and if you try anything funny then these two will start losing something, something that they need to live a productive life. A few fingers at first, then we'll move to the arms, and then, if you persist to resist us, we'll start introducing several plagues into their bodies." The old man inside of Genis grinned. I blinked a few times, contemplating what he'd said before Zelos hauled me up and pushed me forward, in the direction of the desert.

"Come on Al, we don't have time to wait. Besides, I want to get as far across the desert as I can before the sun comes up." I stumbled a few times, but managed to keep going. What was I going to do now? At this rate, I'd be dead, and not just me, but Genis and Zelos too. I don't want to be responsible for their deaths and I don't want to give these guys the sword either. Whatever they want it for, it can't be good.

We traveled long into the night. More than once I found myself gripping the dagger. I don't know the exact reason, but I just feel safer holding that useless piece of metal. The other two noticed this dagger too, but when they saw the shape it was in they just laughed at me and forced me to keep walking. But they let me keep the dagger.

The sun's appearance the next morning was just as beautiful as when I appeared in this land. Back when I was still holding Lloyd. Now though, I was trudging through the desert with two possessed people forcing me forward. Every now and then, my eyes would close from not having slept at all and I would trip. Genis and Zelos would pull me back up and shove me forward again. This happened several times until I finally collapsed amid the ruins of some ancient city.

"We're finally here," said Genis. "The ruins where Efreet lives."

"You don't think the Spirit would recognize us, do you?"

"Nah." Genis waved off Zelos' concerns. "We're not going to actually enter the chamber. Only Alex here. When he comes back out, then we'll head for the next seal."

"Okay then, Alex, time to do your thing man." I glared at Zelos as he pulled me up from the ground and practically dragged me forward.

"Do you have to be so mean?" I asked, roughly shaking Zelos' hand off of me and falling into step.

"No," Zelos replied in the little girl's voice, "But it is much more fun this way! Hehe!" Watching Zelos giggle like a little girl was even more disturbing than watching Colin pull spaghetti through his nose. I shuddered, something I seem to be doing a lot of lately, and followed the madly giggling Zelos down a set of crumbling stone stairs into the bowels of the Earth.

"It's hotter down here than it was on the surface." I wiped the sweat from my forehead and rubbed the sting from my eyes. The tunnel that the stairs opened up into was littered with debris. Pieces of rubble from centuries of decay lay about the floor, their former places in the wall and ceiling gaping open. The air was hot and humid, almost suffocating. There was also a strange orange glow that filled the tunnel from someplace further down.

"Well of course it's hot. Didn't I tell you that Efreet was the spirit of fire, heat, and all things boiling lava hot? The closer we get to him, the hotter it gets."

"Great," I said with mock enthusiasm. As we picked our way through the rubble, I decided to risk getting some information out of this old man and little girl possessing Zelos and Genis. "So… Why does the Vanguard need the Eternal Sword?"

"Oh, just a little thing called saving the world." Zelos unsheathed his sword and calmly sliced through two fire elementals that suddenly popped up. "Nothing you should concern yourself with."

"So then why do you need me to give you the sword?"

"It is not that we need you to give it to us," said Genis, "It has been foretold in the prophecy. You will give it to us and the power of Eternity will enable us to carry out our purpose and free the world of the corrupt ones." I fell silent and thought about what they'd said. I was going to give them the sword because some prophecy said I was going to do it. I don't believe in their prophecy and I certainly don't want to give them the sword. I think that the moment I get that sword back, I'm going to rip their interloping souls from these guys' bodies.

Finally, all three of us stood before a circular transport device.

"I don't think I'm ready for this guys." I'd never seen a teleporter that looked like this before. It was definitely based off of a different type of technology than V-tech. I guess this is what Raine called Magi-technology, the stuff that uses Mana for power.

I'd just taken a step back from the pad when Zelos grabbed me, whispered, "Too bad," into my ear, and threw me onto it. Before I knew what happened, the device came to life and I was teleported to another room. The experience was nothing like using V-tech teleported. It was much, much more painful, like standing in front of a roaring fire and getting burned.

I shook my head to get rid of the headache that the transport had given me. Then I surveyed the room I was now in. At the very back was a large, alter like object. I stood up and walked slowly toward the alter. When I was about six feet away from the thing, the ground starts to shake and large ball of flames forms above the alter. From that ball of fire the figure of a large, horned, orange creature.

His upper torso was in the shape of a very muscular man. The lower part of his body was a large orange serpent's tail with a fin like structure at the very end. His arms had large blue jewels wrapped around his wrists and he only had three fingers. Behind his back a bluish cape and a long mane of fiery red and brown hair billowed in the updrafts that were created from the intense heat. I stared in awe and fear at the truly intense demonic looking creature before me. His eyes, like pure hellfire, felt like they were boring into and through me.

"You who bear the right of the pact. I am one who is bound to Sheena. For what purpose have you come?"

"I… uh… I-I-I-I'm Alex Enstryker. I-I-I'm here to get your blessings, or permission, or something." I was shaking. It was really hot in here, much hotter since Efreet showed up, and I was getting goose bumps. I'd never been more frightened in my life, but I had to get this guy's, or whatever he was; I had to get his blessings to wield the Eternal Sword.

"For…"

"For wielding the Eternal Sword."

"The right to wield that blade of Origin's is not mine to give. What makes you believe you could receive it here?"

"But… But Origin said I had to get all of the summon spirit's permission to wield the sword again. And I need to use the sword to set all the things I've messed up right."

Efreet shifted in mid air, swishing his tail left and right almost casually. "I see. You are not one of this time. I am to test your worthiness to wield the undying fires of Eternity."

"But I don't have a sword or anything."

"That is not of my concern. If you wish to acquire the Eternal Sword once more, then you must defeat me here and now."

I started backing up slowly. For every step I took backwards, Efreet moved closer to me by the same amount of space. We kept up this dance, me moving back, Efreet moving forward, until my hand bumped into the teleporter pad. As Efreet got closer, close enough for me to feel the hairs on my exposed legs and arms begin to singe, the teleporter activated. I looked up and the last person I wanted to see appeared on the pad.

"No one defeats the Enstriker but me!" I stared slack jawed as Charles launched himself at Efreet, swinging his sword in a large overhead arc. I watched as Efreet and Charles traded blows, Charles swinging his sword faster than I'd have thought possible for a human, and Efreet stopping each blow and sending back some of his own. "It's my honor bound duty to defeat him and no one else is allowed to do so until I."

"This test is not for you," said Efreet, suddenly grabbing Charles blade in his three fingered hand, "do not interfere." With that, Efreet wrenched the sword from Charles hand and tossed it behind him where it sank blade tip first into the ground between my legs. Efreet then proceeded to beat the crap out of Charles. I have to admit, I don't really like the guy, but he never deserved that.

"Stop!" I shouted, standing up. Efreet stopped beating Charles in the head with his tail and turned to face me. I reached out and pulled Charles sword from the ground, brandishing it with determination burning from my eyes. I felt a sudden rush of power that pushed my body to move faster, swinging the sword harder and faster than I ever have before.

When Efreet and I met, I ducked under his initial blow and then began stabbing into Efreet over and over, faster than my eye could see. And then I shouted, "Sword Raine Alpha!" as I finished stabbing and executed a flawless uppercut with the blade, sending Efreet flying backwards.

But that wasn't all. I felt the rush of power again and shouted, "Double Demon Fang!" as I swept Charles' sword along the ground twice. The blade was moving so fast that it created two waves of energy that traveled along the ground and into Efreet.

All that energy that had come out of no where slowly drained away. It felt like it was evaporating, which wouldn't be surprising in this heat. When the energy was completely gone and I was back to normal, Efreet got back up and floated back in front of me.

"Your power is admirable. Very well, you have proven worthy of the support of fire. You may go." With that, Efreet disintegrated into a few million glowing orange lights that concentrated in front of my face. Then, quick as a flash, they zoomed down into my belt.

When I looked I found my knife glowing. I pulled it out of my belt and saw a small glowing orange jewel imbedded into the blade. I turned the dagger over and it didn't look any different than before, other than the new jewel.

"Ugh, where am I?" Oh… Yeah, he's here.

"Charles, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to save your sorry ass. Why else would I be here? I told you, only I can-"

"Defeat me? Yeah, whatever…" I can't believe I'm going to say this. "Thanks." Charles gave me a look like he wanted to take my gratitude and shove it down my throat. It was a well founded look to have, since the look I was giving him said that I wanted to do the same thing that Efreet was doing to him.

"No problem," he finally said. "You just wait till I get my strength back, then I'll kick your ass."

"How did you find me? And how did you get here anyway?"

"After you disappeared with that baby, that Origin guy reappeared and told me that I had to follow you and help you. I told him that I wasn't your friend, but he just went on and one about some destiny crap. Then he snapped his fingers and I appeared here."

"Here, in this temple?"

"No… it was in the middle of the desert. Someplace called Triet. I was out hunting today when I saw you marching across the desert toward the ruins. I followed you here."

"How did you get past the two people that were with me?" Those vanguard guys don't seem the types to just let random people interrupt their work.

"I distracted them and while they were occupied, I used the warp pad. That thing hurts!"

"Yeah…" I nodded. "Well, let's go take another trip through the blast furnace." I went over and picked Charles up. As much as I wanted to leave the guy here, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. He did save me after all.

"Hey, don't get all chummy now. I told you, I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Yeah, I heard ya. You talk too much."

"I do not talk too mu-" Just as he said the word we stepped onto the teleportation pad and were sucked from the room. And when we reappeared on the other side, we came face to face with two angry looking possessed people. "-uch. Ouch! You could have warned me!"

"Who is this person?!" roared the old man inside of Genis.

"He's… uh, he's…"

"I'm Charles Skylark, the Child Knight! Who are you to ask for my name?!" Genis and Zelos looked at each other with an arched eyebrow.

"He isn't important to the quest," said the little girl in Zelos. Charles stared at Zelos, confused by the voice change. "He must be eliminated."

"If it wasn't for old Charley boy here, I'd have lost to Efreet. No thanks to either of you." The possessed duo glanced at each other and shrugged.

"What ever man," Zelos said in his normal voice, "let's just get out of here and to the next Seal. I think we should head to Thoda, I heard they have a new set up for the geysers." I was left to help Charles by myself as the other two started leaving. Genis and Zelos walked leisurely toward the exit of the ruins while I had to deal with Charles' limping. When we were in the tunnel that led to the entrance, a strange sound filled the air. Barking.

"That sounds like Noishe. But what would he be doing here?" Genis ran ahead and was about to go up the stairs when a large green and white wolf looking thing bound down the stairs and bowled over the running half elf. "Noishe! What are you doing her?!"

"Grrrrr!"

"Wha- Hey Noishe, it's me Genis!"

"Grrrrr!"

"Hey Noishe, you remember me? It's me, Zelos!" The dog, Noishe, looked at Zelos curiously then…

"Grrrrr!"

"Oh, come on Noishe! It's me-"

"I wouldn't move if I were you." Everyone, including Noishe, turned and looked behind us. Standing there in the hallway was a tall, auburn haired man. He stood with a cocky stance with a sword at the ready. And he was dressed completely in red. And that's when Genis, who was still underneath the growling Noishe, said two words with as much malice and hatred I could remember words being spoken with.

"Lloyd Irving."

* * *

Well, that wraps that up. And hey, now Lloyd's there. I wonder how Alex will respond to a grown up Lloyd. Thanks for reading, please review! 


	14. Chapter 13

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

The heat waves roiled visibly through the air in the dark tunnel. On one end of the exit, standing over Genis, was Noishe, a green and white ball of bristling fur. On the other end, with his sword at the ready, was a man in red. And in the middle was me.

Charles slumped a little from standing in one place for so long. I gently leaned him against the wall so that I could be ready to save him if the situation called for it. Having the irritating Child Knight in my debt could prove interesting.

"Put your weapons on the ground," said the man in red. I had a hard time believing it was Lloyd. After all, the last time I saw him he was barely one and a half years old. "Now!" Lloyd's command jolted my two possessed captors into action.

Genis, not wanting to provoke the large mouth with sharp teeth three inches above his face, slowly reached into his pocket and removed his kendama. With a flick of his wrist, Genis sent the kendama sailing to the other side of the hall. Noishe then lowered his body so that he was literally sitting on top of Genis. The old man inside of Genis gasped as the large dog like creature did this.

Zelos reached for his sword and pulled it out. Lloyd raised his sword to point at Zelos as he did so. I looked from Zelos to Lloyd and back again.

"Do you really think that you can fight effectively with that body?" Lloyd shifted the blade in his hand, swishing it from side to side.

"Why Lloyd, I've been practicing for years, and if remember correctly, I beat you in the Meltokio Coliseum last time." Zelos equipped his shield and started moving to his right. Lloyd started moving to his left. The two circled each other while attempting to stare the other down.

"I may have been defeated by Zelos before, but not by you!" Lloyd stopped, right next to me, and I got a good look at him. His hair obscured over half his face. I could easily see how he was the son of Kratos and Anna. His hair, her soft eyes. And yet, as I watched him, he used Anna's soft eyes as a weapon of intimidation.

"What are you talking about, Bud?"

"You are no bud of mine, Vanguard dog!" Lloyd shouted with a swipe of his sword. I silently chuckled at the pun that Lloyd didn't seem to have noticed saying. Then what he said finally sank in. Lloyd knew about the Vanguard!

"But how?!" shouted the little girl. She gripped Zelos' sword tighter in his hand and narrowed his eyes.

"Martel told me everything about the Vanguard. A species of interplanetary cockroaches that use and consume Mana. I've been hunting your kind down for weeks now. You two are next."

"So," responded the little girl, "Martel has sided with you, eh?"

Lloyd grit his teeth and said, "Mana isn't taking sides. Mana is a side! You are here to take the Tree's very life and I swore I'd never let that happen again!" Lloyd was about to charge at Zelos. I had to stop him before he hurt Zelos.

"Lloyd, stop!" The man stopped and glanced at me without turning his head, something I thought only Kratos could do. "Are you telling me that you're going to kill Zelos? And Genis too?" Lloyd stood there for a few seconds without saying anything.

"It's the only way," he said without flinching. Then he launched himself at Zelos. The two started trading blows before they even met. Zelos cast a fireball spell and Lloyd jumped out of the way. Lloyd used one of his sword techniques and Zelos jumped out of the way. This dance continued for minutes on end. I was mesmerized by the deadly ballet until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned around and found Marty. I was about to give her a big hug when her eyes started glowing. Marty grinned, no; the person inside Marty grinned and grabbed my throat. Her hand started squeezing.

"Marty, snap out of it!" I choked out.

"Eeeehehehehehe," screeched the voice of an old woman. "You silly little boy. I'll grind your bones to dust and consume your life force!"

I don't know why I did it. It happened of its own volition. I'm not even sure how it got in my hand in the first place. I only realized what happened when Marty dropped me and started choking and coughing up blood. The blood painted the dusty ground and my arm. I looked up at her and spotted that dagger I'd bought, the one that was blessed by Efreet, the one that was now sticking out of Marty's chest.

I felt hot tears fall down my face as I scrambled next to Marty's side. The sounds of Lloyd and Zelos battling were instantly pushed into the background. I didn't know what to do. My whole body was shaking like gelatin during an earthquake.

I touched the knife hilt with the tips of my fingers, not knowing if I should pull it out or leave it in. I turned from the knife to Marty's face. Blood was leaking out of the sides of her mouth and her face was very pale. In seconds, I watched her take her last, shuddering, painful breath. Then Marty's eyes went cold and her lungs emptied for the last time.

"No." I started sobbing. "No! No, no, no, no!" I glared hatefully at that wretched dagger sticking out of Marty's body. With a grunt, I ripped the blade from her body with as much force as I could. The orange jewel was glowing so bright that it could have out shone the sun.

I heaved the accursed object as far as I could down the dark hallway. Then I collapsed on top of Marty. Her blood mixed with my tears as I cried. I don't know how long I cried or what happened around me.

"Alex…"

I ignored the person trying to move me. I wanted to rip their hands off. Why couldn't they leave me alone?

"Alex, get up."

I was still crying, though now I was growling a little bit. I hoped whoever was bothering me would get the picture.

"Alex, get the hell off me!" I felt a foot suddenly find a way underneath me. I was kicked off of Marty and slammed into the wall. "Finally! You are such a baby!"

I couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't stop my heart from doing flip flops. My stomach was elatedly giving me heartburn. I cried on, unabashedly smiling. I could feel my face trying to smile wider than my face allowed. Marty was alive. I kept repeating that over and over in my head.

Marty stood up and wiped the blood from her mouth. Then she looked down and saw the blood all over her dress. The chest wound was now missing, but the blood was still there. Marty scowled at the sight of red all over her. She crossed her arms and gave me a scolding look. I continued smiling, not really caring if she was unhappy about the blood all over her. She was alive and that was all that matter.

I startled her when I rushed up to her and hugged her. I buried my face into her shoulder and cried some more. She slowly reached her arms around me and hugged back.

"I thought I'd lost you," I said into her shoulder. She sighed and rubbed my back a little.

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Alex. Jeez you're such a big cry baby." I laughed and held her at arms length by her shoulders.

"I can't help it. You know, if Colin were here too, he'd say I was an emotionally distraught little girl."

"Yeah, and then I'd slap him for saying that about girls." I laughed and soon Marty joined me. Zelos and Lloyd stopped their battle to stare at us laughing. Genis risked taking his eyes off of Noishe's mouth to glance at us. Even the passing fire elemental stopped to investigate. When we were wiping the tears from our eyes, Marty said, "I wish he were here."

"I do too. I still haven't heard heads or tales about him. But that fake detective lady said that he was missing too, so he's got to be somewhere." It didn't take long for Zelos and Lloyd to start fighting again.

"I know," she said. She watched to two swordsmen fighting. Then Marty changed topics. "Alex, what did you do to me? For a second there I was arguing with a strange old woman in my head about killing you, then she was screaming in pain about some kind of fire, and then she was gone." I shuddered when I felt the memories and the emotions I felt rushing back. I didn't want to remember that.

"I… stabbed you with my knife. Frankly I'm surprised it could even hurt you, the thing is duller than Colin's wit." Marty laughed for a second before looking seriously down at Genis below Noishe.

"They have other people inside of them too, don't they?" Marty motioned toward Genis with her hand and then jerked it back and threw a thumb toward Zelos. I nodded and watched Zelos jump over Lloyds' head, and Lloyd was pretty tall. "Can't you do the same thing to him?" I vehemently shook my head.

"I am not killing someone else, even if it will save their lives."

"Oh, you are such a baby."

"Hey! You try losing one of your closest friends and then you can tell me I'm being a baby!" Marty sighed, but was smiling at the same time. She walked over to Genis and kneeled down over his head. He glared at her, or tried to. Noishe wouldn't let him move, much less glare at anything.

"I don't know what you used to stab me with, but I think I can replicate it." I tried imagining what she was talking about. Genis still managed to attempt to glare at Marty. "But I don't think all this blood loss will allow me to cast a strong enough spell. If only I had a medium."

"You can use magic?" Marty and I turned to Charles. He was watching everything curiously from his place against the wall. "I thought only elves and half-elves could use magic. And you're from our world, right? I only learned about elves and half-elves when I got here. How can you use magic if you are from our world?" Marty sighed and waved her hand dismissively.

"I don't have time to explain, I just can, okay? Alex, what happened to that knife you stabbed me with?"

I looked down the hallway. "I threw it that way. Why? Do you want it?" Marty nodded. So I jogged down the hall and searched for the dagger. I spotted the dagger sticking out of the base of the wall. It had apparently spun around when landing and stabbed itself into the wall. When I dislodged the blade from the wall I was surprised to find the orange jewel still glowing.

When I handed Marty the dagger, her eyes glowed in appreciation. She turned it over, handling it like she was holding a life stick of dynamite. I watched her curiously. It was just a useless dagger that didn't even have a cutting edge.

"Wow, Alex, you've got a real pretty one here."

"Yeah, whatever. It's just a useless dagger." Marty scoffed and slapped my arm lightly.

"That's not a nice thing to say about such a beautiful blade." I shrugged. "Okay, I think this will work. This dagger has the aura of Efreet around it."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm the Mana Guardian, remember? I know all about the summon spirits."

"Oh." Marty put the flat of the blade against Genis' head. Then she put her palm over the blade. Genis growled from the initial touch of the dagger's metal. He tried to get out from under Noishe, but he started growling again.

"When I'm done with this spell, I'm going to be very tired."

"I'll catch you," I said in my most reassuring voice possible. She didn't look too pleased by this but nodded anyway. Marty closed her eyes and a white aura surrounded her body. I watched the vibrating whiteness flow down her arms and into the blade of the knife. Genis started growling and writhing. He gnashed his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. Marty remained still, completely focused.

Genis writhed slowly underneath Noishe. It wasn't violent, but it was clear that there was something beastial controlling his movements. After several minutes Genis went limp and Marty opened her eyes. Noishe whined loudly before he started licking Genis' face. Marty blinked a few times, nodded and me with a smile, and then turned to face Zelos.

Lloyd, having watched what happened the entire time while fighting, grabbed Zelos from behind. He looped his arms underneath Zelos' and locked his hands behind his head beneath the soft red locks in one move. The little girl inside of Zelos whimpered as Marty approached him.

88888

I walked out of the hole in the ground with a tired grin on my face. Behind me was a large green and white dog with two bodies slouched on his back. Lloyd limped up the stairs behind me. And Marty was helping up Charles in the back.

The sun was just going below the horizon and we decided to make camp. Noishe was curled up next to Lloyd. He was keeping watch. I was trying to fall asleep. Marty, Genis, Charles, and Zelos were all zonked out.

I finally gave up trying to hold my curiosity in. "Hey, Lloyd?" The older man looked at me curiously. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the last time I saw you was a few days ago, and you were just a baby. Now you're much older. I'm pretty sure we save you from whoever kidnapped you now, because you're still here. So I'm not that worried that I'll fail on that front anymore. So I was just wondering… what happened to you, after all these years?"

Lloyd didn't answer right away, instead gazing into the firelight much like Kratos had gazed into the rain. He was remembering something or a lot of things. I watched him sit there, watched him smirk at some memories and frown at others, watched the fire light reflect off his eyes.

Finally, he said, "I guess you could say that I got older, saved the world, and then grew up." I nodded and rolled onto my back. I stared at the stars as I thought about what he said.

"I wish you could tell me what happens to me, but when I think about it, you probably can't."

"And why is that?"

"Well… For one thing, it might mess up some space time continuum or something like that. And for another thing, Origin would get all pissy over it." Lloyd started laughing loudly. The others groaned and moved about. Noishe grunted and swished his tail into Lloyd, who batted it away. Eventually they fell back into deep slumber.

"That he would," Lloyd agreed. "I guess you're right. I can't tell you much. But I can tell you one thing. My father never gave up on me, and I never gave up on him or my friends. I'm guessing it was true back then, and it's true now."

"You have no idea." I chuckled remembering the faces that Kratos was making at Baby Lloyd. That's when it hit me. Lloyd wasn't in the least surprised by the things I was saying. How did he know I was in his past? "Lloyd, who was it that told you about me?"

"So you finally caught on, eh?" Lloyd chuckled himself and then sighed. I can only assume Lloyd leaned back onto Noishe because the great big dog grunted loudly. "I was in Iselia, remember? Professor Sage told me everything. Colette wanted to come too, but she had her hands full with the kids."

"You have kids?" I glanced over at Lloyd. He shook his head.

"No. Not yet anyway. The kids I'm talking about are the orphans that she takes care of. Colette's their surrogate mother. All those kids…" Lloyd sighed softly. "All the kids left without parents after the reunification. From all corners of the two worlds. Some from Exire. Some from Meltokio. Some from Palmacosta. Some from Asgard. And quite a few from Heimdall. Kids of all races, colors, and genders under one roof in one big, over rambunctious, uncontrollable, ridiculously large family. The only one I know that can control them all is Colette. Even the Professor has trouble with them." I laughed as I tried imagining the nice lady I met in Iselia managing a house full of kids literally crawling on the walls and swinging on chandeliers.

"I guess that would be a difficult job." Lloyd didn't say anything but I could tell he agreed. "Lloyd, do you know what I have to do?"

"Pretty much do what you did with Efreet. Go, get all the elemental summon spirit's blessings, and then visit Origin's seal in the Torent Forest. He'll probably have the future Eternal Sword waiting for you there. Of course, you'll probably have to fight him too, but after fighting all the other spirits, that shouldn't be a problem." Lloyd looked me up and down, noting that my eyes were drooping and I was yawning more often now. "Get some sleep," he said, "You've got a lot of walking ahead of you."

"Yeah," I nodded with a yawn. "Goodnight Lloyd."

"Goodnight." I shut my eyes and the world around me faded away.

* * *

This chapter was kind of like therapy for me. I recently had to deal with the death of a loved one. I guess this is like a kind of reflection, and a wish that the loved one had come back. But this being the real world, that won't happen. Still, it felt good to write.

Please, leave a review. Thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 14

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

"Dirty Bastards!" The thief in front of me just cracked a devilish grin and tugged suggestively at a knife tucked into his sash.

The two thieves and a witch had stepped out of the underbrush and blocked our way. It was just our luck that the trio caught our group right as we entered the pass that went over the mountain range separating Izoold from the Triet Desert. The two thieves were standing in front of us and the witch was standing behind us, right any escape we might have had into the rolling dunes of the desert.

The air here was just as hot as in the desert, easily taking our breath away. There was a slight breeze that made it slightly more bearable, though I could still see the others wiping the sweat from their foreheads with their already soaked sleeves to keep it from dripping into their eyes. Everyone's hair was messily plastered all over the place. We'd run out of water a few hours ago so we were all really thirsty. And to top it all off, we ran into the pass hoping to escape from a particularly large Sandworm.

"Kid, you and yours are in no condition to be callin us anythin. You're all so tired from runnin that you don't have any strenth left to fyht." The thief laughed along with his fellows. A dark crimson trail was the first inkling that I got about how bad of a shape we were really in. I turned and investigated the rest of our group.

The trial of blood led my eyes to Lloyd. He was leaning heavily on Noishe and clutching his leg which was bleeding pretty badly. It was probably the Sandworm. Marty was standing, but only barely. She was leaning on her knees and was having a hard time breathing. And lastly, Charles was sitting on the ground. And right before my eyes, he fell backwards onto his back. I was the only one who wasn't in such bad condition, though I was still tired and thirsty.

"Well, then," I said, "looks like I'll be the one taking you dirty rats out."

"Hah," barked the witch. "You'n who's army?" Sparks erupted from my sheath as I pulled my sword. With my peripheral vision I could see the ice cool blue light emitted by what Lloyd called, "The Vorpal Sword." I smiled a little as I watched the thieves eyes move from my own to the sword in my hand.

"I don't think I'll need an army if you're all scared of one sword."

"We aren't afraid of one measly little sword!" growled the first thief. He ripped his own knife out of his sash, cutting it off, and charged at me. He didn't get very far before his pants fell down around his ankle and tripped him. I noticed Marty's face get very red. My mouth split into the widest grin I'd ever worn.

"Benjamin, you idiot." Benjamin fumbled about, attempting to stand up and pull his pants back on at the same time. I glanced at the witch behind us. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head, her red hair waving back and forth. When I focused back in front of me, Benjamin had managed to stand up while holding his pants up with one hand. He was waving a knife back and forth with the other.

"Okay," I said, shaking my head in an attempt to hold back my laughter. "I'm gonna let you run away. Just don't try to mug anyone ever again, okay?"

The leader thief glared daggers at me and pulled his knife out of the sash around his waste. "This one's mine," he shouted to the witch. "Just watch the rest and make sure they don't do anythin funny. Fry the first one that does. And Benjamin, 'et yourself toether."

"Alex, be careful." I turned and gave Lloyd a nod. He was giving me a concerned look as he held an apple gel to the gash on his leg. Marty was giving me a similar look, but she also looked like she wanted to help.

"Don't worry," I said, "Kratos is the one who taught me after all."

"Da-Kratos taught you how to use a sword?!"

"Just watch." I turned and faced the lead thief. He stalked up to me, slowly weaving back and forth. Then when he was just two feet away, he rushed in and shoved the knife forward.

I watched this all happen as if it were in slow motion. As the blade of the knife sped toward me I instinctively reached out and grabbed the hand holding it. As I did this, I twisted my wrist and swung the Vorpal Sword. The flat of the ice blue blade smashed into the thief's head and dropped him to the ground.

888888888888

"Those bandits were really nice." Marty tossed a heavy bag of Gald into the air.

"Yeah," Charles said with a smile plastered on his face. He leaned back and drank heavily from a full canteen of water. Small sprinkles of the prism like substance fell from his face as he walked. When he'd drunk his full, he dumped the rest of the contents onto his head. The water cascaded down his head and then bounced off his shoulders like a miniature waterfall. It fell to the ground and soaked the dusty gravel.

"I just want to get to Izoold without anymore of those guys appearing," I said. I looked out over the wind swept green fields of grass and copious amounts of trees. The sun was still up. Even though it was just past noon, it felt like morning. The feeling put an extra bounce in the four's step. Even Noishe seemed to be prancing about.

Lloyd was the only one without a bounce in his step. No one blamed him though; he did have a wounded leg. But he wasn't complaining at all and kept up with the rest of us easily.

As we walked, I contemplated what happened on the other side of the pass. I couldn't explain to myself how the events happened in the way they did. One moment, I was tired from running through the desert, the next moment, I was perfectly battle ready. And not only that, but I was moving at a speed far greater than I'd ever moved before. Add on to that Lloyd's suspicious behavior. He didn't seem very surprised at all.

Just as we were leaving the last of the foot hills and entering into the forest, someone started shouting at us from behind. Everyone stopped and turned around to see what the commotion was. What at first seemed like a moving cloud of dust materialized into the three thieve from earlier.

We stood and waited for them. I wanted to see what they were going to do this time and I suspected that the other held similar desires. When they finally caught up to us, they fell to the ground. Their heaving breaths were throwing mini bursts of dust into the air.

"Well?" asked Lloyd. "What is it?"

"We… huff We want… huff want a rematch! huff huff" The three strained and heaved to push themselves up, but only managed to create a dull thud when they fell back down.

"And we want… gasp our stuff back! hack cough" said the witch. Her large brimmed hat wobbled back and forth and her dark cape mangled up in her legs as she writhed about on the ground.

"Sorry, but you gave to us fair and square." Marty tossed the bag of Gald into the air once more, catching it mid-toss with a jingle. "We can't help it if you're just really bad at stealing."

"Fine then," said the leader. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small jewel and pressed it against the back of his fist. "I'll just use this little thin and take you all out." Benjamin and the witch did the same, pulling out their own jewels and pressing it against the back of their fists.

Lloyd unsheathed his sword with a flourish. He slowly made his way to stand between Marty, Charles, and I with his one-two step. I began pulling the Vorpal Sword out, but Lloyd turned and waved me off. I pulled it out anyway. No sense in being unprepared.

The lead thief charged at Lloyd with his knife held high. He was moving and breathing calmly, as if he'd never been winded in the first place. His movements were also much faster, blurring to the point where it was hard to follow his movements. Lloyd stood stock still, not moving an inch.

The thief moved in. Lloyd didn't move. The thief ducked down low and used his momentum to keep himself moving forward while using his leg muscles to push upward. The result was that the thief was bringing his knife straight up to Lloyd's head.

Lloyd tilted his head to the side and the knife missed my centimeters. He then grabbed the thief by the head with his open hand. He pulled the thief's face down and pulled his good knee up. The thief's face smashed into Lloyd's knee like a sledge hammer falling onto a watermelon.

The lead thief fell to the ground for the second time that day, this time his nose was broken and his face bloody. Lloyd gave us all a cocky grin. "Kratos taught me too."

Benjamin attempted to take advantage of Lloyd's distraction and rushed in for the kill. He attempted to stab Lloyd with a lightning quick thrust to the ribs.

Lloyd didn't even turn to face the thief. He swung his sword in a circle so fast that it smacked the knife out of Benjamin's hand. When Lloyd did turn, he punched the thief in the face so hard that he staggered for a few seconds and then fell hard onto the ground.

"Too easy," Lloyd boasted.

The witch, more of her wits about her, was casting a spell. The Mana was flowing around her like a dancing wall of purple fire. She lifted her staff into the air and shouted, "Lightning!"

All the purple Mana floating around her was sucked into the wooden staff she held. A bolt of lightning struck the top tip of the wooden rod and then several seconds later, another bolt lanced downward above Lloyd.

Lloyd shook his head in exasperation. Milliseconds before the bold of blinding light struck him and singed all his trademark hair off, Lloyd shouted, "Reflection!" and slammed his sword into the bolt. The swing was so fast that I didn't even realize what happened until my mind was able to register the river of excited electrons plowing into the witch.

888888888888

"Those bandits were really, _really_ nice!" Marty was now tossing an even large bag of Gald into the air. It's customary jingle now amplified by a doubling in size.

"Yeah," Charles nodded and looked out of the forest as we followed the meandering pathway out into the field. "You don't think those thieves were controlled by the Vanguard, do you?"

I shook my head, suddenly becoming annoyed by the long bangs hanging down in front of my face. "No, the Vanguard that I've seen so far had no care for their hosts. They just as soon killed them than kept them alive."

"I'd say those were just a couple of unlucky bandits who got in over their head," said Marty. The rest of us chorused in agreement.

"Bark! Bark!" Noishe joyously ran ahead into the large field of grass. Several gusts swept along the tips of each green stalk, making it appear as if it were actually an ocean with cresting waves and rolling troughs. In the distance, smoke could be seen rising from the rooftops of a several red brown chimneys. The oceans' rhythmic to and fro was also making itself known as we walked along this well worn path.

"Lloyd…" The older auburn haired one turned to me with a questioning look. "Why is it that I seem to be doing better than the rest of you?" His features transmuted into one of confusion. "What I mean is, why is it that I wasn't tired after running through a desert? And how was I able to defeat that thief so fast? And back when I was fighting Efreet, I felt a surge of power that enabled me to defeat the fire spirit. All these things seem to be connected to things that need a lot of strength and stamina, I was just wondering what it was that was letting me do all of that."

"Oh, that," Lloyd said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He didn't answer right away. Instead he continued to try to sell a cheap grin to a stingy group of customers. "I was kinda hoping you wouldn't ask about that."

"Come on Lloyd, I'm curious about that too," Marty crossed her arms over her chest and gave Lloyd a glare, to which he slightly shrank back from. It was almost comical, he reminded me of Colin when he did something that Marty disapproved of. "It wouldn't have anything to do with that Exsphere that Raine and Genis told me about, would it?"

I turned my hand over and looked at the dark blue jewel. It struck me then that this thing I had in my hand looked exactly like the ones that the thieves pulled out. The ones that Lloyd after the fight smashed into smithereens with a slightly depressed guilty expression.

"I guess the only thing I can tell you is that it is that Exsphere you're wearing. It brings out the full potential of the wearer and increases your abilities beyond their normal limit. The only other way to achieve the same results that an Exsphere grants a person is a life long intensive training program." Lloyd idly rubbed his hands together. "But that isn't the half of it. The Exspheres are produced at a very high cost. The only one's left right now are the ones that were made before production stopped."

"What's that high price you asked about?" Charles looked at the jewel on the back of my hand like he wanted to rip it off and use it himself. He was edging closer to me very slowly, something I easily picked up on. I slowly edged away as he slowly edged closer.

"Human lives."

Everyone stopped walking. We were just outside of the village of Izoold by now. It was a pretty large place. I could see several large mast ocean going ships docked and a flurry of activity. People were loading and unloading cargo, having conversations, playing in the sand on the beach, etc.

"So you're saying that those things are made from human beings?" asked Charles. He was almost turning green from nausea after wanting the one I was wearing. I myself was feeling sick. Marty didn't look so healthy either.

I looked down at the jewel attached to my hand once more. I suddenly had the violent urge to rip it off and toss it into the ocean. Before I could reach for it, Lloyd's gloved hand appeared and grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"I know how you feel. I was once using the Exsphere that took my own mother's life. But I needed that thing to set everything right. Once I was done with my trials, I shattered the damned thing and set her soul free. Right now, you need this to stay healthy. Raine told me what she had to do to revive you from the dead. I suspect that you'll need that jewel for a very long time. But don't worry, you won't need it forever. Once you don't need it anymore, I'll gladly smash it to bits. But right now, I know that the person inside of this jewel wouldn't want their life to be thrown away if they could be used to save another."

I stared dumbly up at Lloyd's softened features. I didn't know what to think. On one hand I knew that Lloyd was right. On the other I was so disgusted by the fact that I was up until now casually wearing someone's very life on my hand without knowing it. And I was almost angry at Lloyd and the others for not telling me about this. But at the same time, I knew that it was something that just had to be done.

If I were inside one of these small things, I would want my life to have some meaning before I was set free. It would most likely have been taken far too early for me to make any difference any other way than through the person wearing me. I was very confused about everything lately.

I looked down on the jewel and traced a finger around it. The fire light bounced off of its surface making it look like there was a light coming from inside of the dark hued jewel. We'd gotten a hotel room for the night. Lloyd said that we'd be traveling to the new port town called New Palmacosta on the other side of the ocean in the morning.

"Hey, you alright?" I took a deep breath and nodded at Marty. She sat down next to me and lifted my Exsphere encrusted hand up for a closer inspection. "It's a beautiful stone, though not something I'd want to live in."

"Me either," I chuckled. Marty let go of my hand and I leaned back against the head board of my bed. "I wish I knew what was going on. First that monster in the museum and then all of this. None of this makes any sense and none of it seems real."

"Yeah…" Marty stood up and brushed some imaginary crumbs away. "I'm hungry, how about you?"

"Yeah, let's go get something to eat. Lloyd's really slow with the food tonight." Marty left as I readied myself to leave. On an impulse I strapped on Lloyd's Vorpal Sword on my way out of the door. The large panel of finely carved artwork swung closed without a noise.

* * *

Well, I hoped you liked it. I'm still trying to perfect my "Show Don't Tell" technique, so if it reads a bit rough, sorry.

That's all for today, on to the next chapter of Legend! Which should be done by friday...

Please review and thanks for reading!


	16. Chapter 15

"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian

* * *

I'd never been on a boat before. And now, having crossed an ocean, I realized that I never wanted to step onto a floating object ever again. 

"It's alright, Alex. We made it to dry land, see?" Marty stomped the sturdy stone pier beneath her feet a couple times. "You can stop feeling sick and get off the boat now."

"Tell that to my stomach," I groaned out. "And the lunch I lost half way here."

"You are such a wimp," said Charles as he casually hopped off the boat and onto the pier. His movements caused the boat to wobble a little, not even enough to cause it to shake anything, but it was enough to cause my head to spin out of control. I held back the urge for all of one second before I leaned over the edge of the boat and let the ocean have the rest of my lunch and the dinner from the night before.

"Alright, everything is set on the… Whoa, you alright, Alex?" Lloyd stood mid-stride, halfway between the pier and the edge of the boat. I looked up at the older version of the baby I was going to somehow save. "Heh heh, I guess not," Lloyd said, laughing sheepishly. I groaned and leaned on the side rail, trying to force the world to stop spinning wildly out of control.

"Feh," scoffed Charles, "Loser!"

I clenched my fist and forced myself up to look at the jerk. He was looking at me as if he was on some high pedestal and I was some worm wiggling about on the ground. My anger quickly caved in though, bowing to the intense nausea swirling around my head. Charles just smirked triumphantly, like he'd won something.

I groaned again as the boat started rocking once more.

* * *

"Master, the boy has achieved success with Efreet. He is now able to wield the fire spirit's power against you." 

"Excellent… The boy doing exactly as I foresaw. You there!"

"Yes, Master."

"Fill the prison yards. I want a stuffed prison before nights end when they will all be sacrificed."

"Master, the prison yards were already emptied, and they've yet to be restocked with criminals."

"Then restock them with anyone you can find. It doesn't matter who, as long as they're civilians. It shouldn't be that difficult, with a thousand worlds under my control, there's plenty of meat available. Now go!"

"Yes, Master."

* * *

"Didn't Zelos say that he and Seles would be meeting up with us around here?" I asked. I picked up and inspected a sword on display, but it wasn't appealing to me at all, so I returned it to the vendor. Lloyd turned from the armor stand that he was standing in front of and shrugged. 

"He never was one to arrive on time. Maybe he got sidetracked by something. Or maybe he just stopped for breakfast. It could be any number of things." I nodded and went back to inspecting weapons. Lloyd wanted me to have more to defend myself than a small dagger, even though it did have Efreet's power running through it.

"Hurry up and choose a sword, will ya! God, you take longer to shop than a girl!"

"Hey!" shouted Marty. She marched over to Charles and slapped him on the back of the head hard enough to knock the older boy to the ground. "Girls do all the shopping anyway, so what are you complaining about?"

Charles was on the ground for less than a second before he stood back up and got into Marty's face. Both of them were having a staring death match when I found a sword. It wasn't anything great, but then again, it wasn't as bad looking as my dagger. About a four foot steel sword that looked like it had been freshly forged or re-forged.

It wasn't heavy when I picked it up and swung it around a few times. Lloyd noticed my interest and nodded his approval. I turned as Lloyd paid the vendor and showed the new blade to Marty. Marty, however, was no where to be seen. And neither was Charles. They were both gone.

"Uh… Lloyd, where did they-"

"Hey, Alex, look at this thing!" I turned and saw that Marty and Charles were standing in front of a large, stone obelisk. The four sides of the structure were fairly wide and had words carved into its face. The obelisk was standing in the center of the town center with the harbor on the opposite side, the Governor-General's Office to the left, and civilian buildings to the right.

True, we'd passed through the town center on the way from the harbor to the marketplace, but when that took place, the obelisk was not there. I started walking closer to the stone structure but Lloyd stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't go toward that thing," he said darkly. I looked up at Lloyd questioningly, but he ignored me and ran ahead toward the obelisk.

"Get away from that thing!" he shouted toward the crowd now gathering around the thing. He grabbed a few people and tried to push them back, but they just got up and kept moving forward. "Run!"

No one listened to him though, in fact, they flat out ignored him. Marty and Charles were the first ones to touch it, and then it happened. The obelisk started glowing, let out a pulse of light, and then vanished. The crowd, including Lloyd, Marty, and Charles, went with it, leaving me and several other people completely alone. The burgeoning town of New Palmacosta had suddenly lost half of its population. The silence made the city feel as if it had just had its arms and legs ripped off.

That night, after several hours of interrogation by the New Palmacosta Military, I made my way out of the city. They didn't know what happened, at least not any more than I did, but were blaming it on insurgents called The Desian Rebels.

From what I remember about Desians, they operated out of places called ranches. But that information was from a few years ago, so it probably wasn't all that relevant anymore. Just to be sure though, I was intent on making my way to the closest Desian Ranch and seeing what I could find. Unfortunately, I was stopped at the city gates.

"No one passes," said the fully armored guard. He and his partner had crossed their poleaxes and wouldn't let me close enough to the doors to even touch them. I gave a frustrated sigh and slumped my shoulders.

"I need to get out of this place."

"Sorry kid," said the guard. "Even if you were the Pope of the Church of Martel himself, you wouldn't be able to go out these gates."

"Great." I sulked back toward the center of town. Just as I rounded a corner, and passed a particularly dark side alley, an arm reached out and grabbed my by the back of my shirt. Firmly grasped, I was dragged back into the alley.

I nearly punched my assailant in the face when I recognized it as Zelos. Behind him was standing Seles. Both had worried looks.

"What happened," asked Zelos.

I glanced back and forth between the siblings. "Some kind of abduction, only I've never seen one done during broad daylight. It took half the town's population, Marty, Charles, and Lloyd with it." The two looked at each other and then something dawned on me. "Hey, how did you two get in here? The gate's locked."

Zelos snorted confidently. "There's no gate that can keep the Great Zelos Wilder from getting where he wants."

"Yeah, and the Great Zelos Wilder just happened to use the sewers to get in and out." Zelos pouted at his sister and went off into a corner to sulk. Seles sighed melodramatically. "Such an inflated ego, my brother has."

"Okay, that's great, now we can get out and find that old Desian Ranch." I received odd stares of mixed emotion from the other two. "What?" I asked incredulously.

"Why would you even want to go into the old Desian Ranches?" asked Zelos.

"I was interrogated by the New Palmacosta Military after the event and it seems that they suspect some kind of Desian insurgency is behind all of this. I figured that I'd start by looking into where the Desians used to hang out and see if there were any clues as to what's going on there. Plus, I need to find the Water Seal, which Lloyd said was near the old Desian Ranch."

"That makes some sense," said Zelos. "Let's go then."

Zelos lead the way back toward the gate. Just before we reached the gate though, he made a hard right down another dark alley. It was a dead end street, however, at the very end was a sewer man-hole. I walked right past it and was looking up at the wall, wondering how we were going to get over it, when I heard the scraping of iron over stone.

I didn't even need to turn around to know I wasn't going to like what I saw. "I can't believe you actually meant that we're going through a sewer!"

"Tough luck, kid," echoed Zelos' voice from below ground. I grimaced and glanced into the round man-hole. The metal plate that normally was to have covered it had been moved to the side. The smell wasn't so great either.

I groaned and shook my head, psyching myself up for this. "I can't believe I'm doing this." Once I was more comfortable with the idea of going into a sewer, I took a deep breath and climbed into the hole.

* * *

Marty's eyes fluttered open and frantically pivoted back and forth. In the darkness that encapsulated her, the only thing she could feel was the cold sweat forming all over her body and the tightly bound straps holding her down on some sort of flat surface. 

"Martel? Is that you?"

"Yes, Lloyd it's me," she responded. She looked in the direction that Lloyd's voice had come from.

"Thank goodness." The relief was evident in his voice. "You're the first one after me to wake up. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied, giving her bindings a few good yanks. "But I'm all tied up."

"Yeah, me too."

"Where are we?" she asked. She stopped fiddling with her bindings and forcibly calmed herself down. _Panicking will not get me out of here,_ she told herself.

"We were kidnapped by the Vanguard."

"What!" she shouted. Her voice echoed into the darkness until silence reigned once more. "What was that?" she repeated a bit more quietly.

"Like I said, the Vanguard has abducted us and what seems like half the population of New Palmacosta."

"How is that even possible," she wondered aloud.

"They used a teleporter to put that obelisk into the middle of town. It acted like a beacon for them. When enough people for their plans were close enough to the obelisk, they activated the field again and teleported us here."

"How do you know all this?" Lloyd was acting surprisingly calm in this situation. And he had an uncanny way of talking about what happened, as it he'd seen it all before. In fact he had seen it all before, as he was about to explain.

"It was what led me to discover the Vanguard in the first place. Back almost a year ago, a similar vanishing act took place in Luin. The people passed it off as rebels attacking. But there were also some local tales about how whole pilgrimages disappeared without a trace."

"You mean this has been going on for many years?" she asked.

"Yes. I decided to look into and discovered that Cruxis and the Desians did as well. They wrote it off as instability between the two worlds. But that would have made it impossible to happen again once I recombined the worlds three years ago."

"So if it wasn't dimensional instability, then you're saying that people who just up and disappeared all this time have been taken by the Vanguard?"

"I didn't know for sure who was taking them until I ran into one of them in Meltokio. He was running away from Zelos of all people. Apparently, I wasn't the only one looking into these mass kidnappings. The King of Tethe'alla had ordered Zelos to look into it and he'd gotten a lead in a bar where a drunken man kept rambling on about occult meetings and human sacrifices."

"So what happened to the guy? And who was he anyway?"

"We forced him to take us to the next meeting place, which just happened to be in their stronghold. At first though, we thought he was an innocent who had overheard or mistakenly seen this ritual, but then his eyes started glowing and he started rambling on and on about the revenge he'd have on us." Lloyd paused for a second and then continued. "He wasn't a savory one, that first Vanguard. That night, after he'd led us to the base, he cut his own neck and we thought he'd killed himself. We were wrong though. He showed up again, just in a different body. That's the reason they kidnap people, they're harvesting people to use hosts. And when they're done with them, they just kill themselves, go back to the base, and pick out a new body."

Marty gasped in astonishment. "They're harvesting us to use as bodies? That's just as bad as those Exspheres."

"Yeah," agreed Lloyd. "Actually, that spell you used with Alex's knife was the first time I'd ever seen one of the Vanguard die. How did you do it?"

"It was nothing I did," said Marty. "He actually stabbed me with it. Then instead of killing me, the Mana Efreet had infused into it started to spread through my body. After that, the entity inside of me just burned away, though it screamed the whole time. When I recovered, I just did the same thing, only instead of stabbing Genis, I projected Efreet's Mana into his body. It seemed like it would have the same effect."

"Well, it's good that you finally found a way to get rid of those bastards. They've killed hundreds of thousands already. There's got to be a way to stop them once and for all though."

"Maybe there is." Marty once again pulled on her restraints, but like before, didn't get anywhere. "How are we going to get out of this?"

Just at that moment, a door opened behind Marty. It creaked on its rusty hinges, squealing until it ran into the metal wall. Marty blinked a few times, letting her eyes get used to the light. Lloyd was off to her right, strapped down just like her, and glaring at the person who was standing in the doorway. The light from beyond the door cast the person's shadow far into the room, and caused it to elongate as the person walked into the room.

The figure closed the door after walking into the room, once again casting the entire place into darkness. People outside the room soon began to hear screams of agony.

* * *

"I can't believe I did that!" I jumped out of the drainage pipe and onto clean, and none smelly grass like an alligator was going to bite my legs off if I didn't. "That was the most disgusting thing I've ever done!" 

"You should quite whining, we've got a long way to go, and the sun's almost up."

I turned to Zelos and scowled. "How many time have you done that?" I shouted.

Zelos paused for a moment, scratching his chin thoughtfully. Then a lecherous grin spread across his face and he started walking away. I shook my head in frustration. _At least it's over, _I thought.

"Don't let him get to you," said Seles. "He's a pervert. He snuck out of the city at night all the time and had to sneak back in using the sewers when he finished with whatever girl he was with that night."

I choked on and stumbled. "What do you mean, whatever girl he was with that night?" Zelos looked over his shoulder, that lecherous grin spreading wider. Seles rolled her eyes.

"Don't get him started," she said. "He is a dirty pervert through and through."

"Let's not get lost in complimenting my gorgeousness," said Zelos, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest. "We've got to get to the Old Human Ranch before anything bad happens to those people."

"What do you mean? You know where they were taken?"

"Actually, we came to New Palmacosta to meet up with you guys before we, that is, me and Lloyd went to the old ranch and destroyed it... again. So we were going there anyway, just happens that things have changed and now it's a rescue mission instead of just a demolition target."

"Well then let's hurry up," I shouted. I took off running as fast as I could. Then I skidded to a stop and turned around. "Which way is it." Seles laughed and Zelos sighed.

"You know, you act more and more like Lloyd the more I'm around you. I suppose it can't be helped, though. I mean how can you compare to this?" Zelos puffed out his chest again and rested his fists in a manly fashion on his hips.

"He'd have more luck comparing himself to a goat," said Seles flatly.

"Guys!" I whined. "Which way is the ranch. The others could be in danger."

"Don't worry," said Zelos seriously. "The Vanguard doesn't use their victims until they've been acclimated and that takes at least a week, so we still have a little time."

_How does he know…_ Suspicious, I asked, "Zelos, how do you knowthat?" At first he didn't answer. Then he took off running. "Zelos!" I looked at Seles, she shrugged and we both took off after Zelos.

"I'll explain on the way," Zelos said as we caught up to him.

* * *

Please review, and as always, thanks for reading. 


End file.
